Distributed data storage grouping

ABSTRACT

An apparatus of includes a processor component to: transmit node device identifiers to multiple node devices to define an ordering thereamong and among subsets of multiple blocks of data distributed thereamong; receive sizes of the subsets from the multiple node devices; derive block exchanges among the multiple node device based on the sizes and a minimum size imposed on data transmissions to storage device(s); and transmit a block exchange vector that describes the block exchanges to the multiple node devices, wherein: the subsets remain distributed among a reduced number of the multiple node devices following the block exchanges; at least all node devices of the reduced number but one stores an amount of the blocks of data exceeding the minimum size; and the block exchanges are all lower-order to higher-order node device transfers, or all higher-order to lower-order node device transfers.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 120 of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/233,400 filed Dec. 27, 2018; which is a continuation-in-part under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 120 of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/992,670 filed May 30, 2018; which is a continuation under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 120 of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/694,217 filed Sep. 1, 2017 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,990,367); which is a continuation-in-part under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 120 of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/220,182 filed Jul. 26, 2016 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,811,524); which is a continuation under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 120 of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/220,034 also filed Jul. 26, 2016 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,619,148); all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their respective entireties for all purposes.

Application Ser. No. 16/233,400 also claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/654,864, filed Apr. 9, 2018, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes. Application Ser. No. 15/694,217 also claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/519,824 filed Jun. 14, 2017, and to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/535,961 filed Jul. 23, 2017, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their respective entireties for all purposes. Application Ser. No. 15/220,034 also claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. Nos. 62/197,514 and 62/197,519, both filed Jul. 27, 2015, and both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their respective entireties for all purposes.

For sake of ease of discussion, U.S. application Ser. Nos. 15/220,034, 15/220,182, 15/220,192 and 15/804,570, which all share a common description and drawings (and which are all incorporated herein by reference in their respective entireties for all purposes), are collectively referred to hereinafter as “the Distributed File System Cases.” Also for sake of ease of discussion, U.S. application Ser. Nos. 15/694,217, 15/694,662, 15/694,674 and 15/992,670, which all share a command description and drawings (and which are all incorporated herein by reference in their respective entireties for all purposes), are collectively referred to hereinafter as “the Distributed Encryption Cases.”

TECHNICAL FIELD

Various embodiments described herein are generally directed to inter-device coordination and data set organization to improve distributed encryption and decryption of a data set processed by multiple node devices.

BACKGROUND

The performance of analyses of large data sets (e.g., what is commonly referred to as “big data”) is becoming increasingly commonplace in such areas as simulations, process monitoring, decision making, behavioral modeling and making predictions. Such analysis are often performed by grids of varying quantities of available node devices, while the data sets are often stored within a separate set of storage devices. This begets the challenge of efficiently encrypting and storing such large data sets within storage devices for future use, and efficiently retrieving and decrypting such large data sets from storage devices for use by a grid of node devices. Among such challenges in the storage of such large data sets may be various constraints on the manner in which such large data sets are provided to storage devices.

SUMMARY

This summary is not intended to identify only key or essential features of the described subject matter, nor is it intended to be used in isolation to determine the scope of the described subject matter. The subject matter should be understood by reference to appropriate portions of the entire specification of this patent, any or all drawings, and each claim.

An apparatus includes a processor component and a storage to store instructions that, when executed by the processor component, cause the processor component to perform operations including receive, at a node device of multiple node devices, and from a control device via a network, a node device identifier of a set of node device identifiers assigned by the control device to multiple node devices, wherein: the set of node device identifiers defines an ascending or descending series of numerical values that define an ordering among the multiple node devices; and the ordering among the node devices defines a corresponding ordering among subsets of multiple blocks of data of a data set that are distributed among the multiple node devices. The processor is also caused to: transmit, to the control device via the network, an indication of a total size of a first subset of the multiple blocks of data that is stored within the storage of the node device; and receive, from the control device via the network, a block exchange instruction for the node device to participate in a performance of a set of block exchanges in which at least one node device of the multiple node devices serves as a source device to transmit one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data to another node device of the multiple node devices that serves as a target node device. In response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a target node to receive a second subset of the multiple blocks of data from another node device that serves as a source node device in the set of block exchanges, the processor component is caused to perform operations including: receive, from the source node device via the network, the second subset; store the second subset in the storage; as part of a registration of the multiple blocks of data by the multiple node devices, transmit, to the control device via the network, an indication of a size of each block of data, or of each sub-block of each block of data, of the first subset and of the second subset, and in an order among the blocks of data of the first subset and the second subset that corresponds to an ordering among the multiple blocks of data that corresponds to the ordering among the multiple node devices; group, by the processor component, the blocks of data of the first subset and the second subset into multiple segments of the data set in an order within each segment of the multiple segments and in an order among the multiple segments that corresponds to the ordering among the multiple blocks of data, wherein each segment of the multiple segments is formed to have a size that meets a minimum threshold size imposed on units of data that are transmitted to one or more storage devices; transmit, to the one or more storage devices via the network, the multiple segments; receive, from the one or more storage devices via the network, multiple segment identifiers, wherein each segment identifier of the multiple segment identifiers corresponds to a segment of the multiple segments; and transmit, to the control device via the network, the multiple segment identifiers in an order that corresponds to the ordering among the multiple segments.

The set of node device identifiers may define a 0-based ascending set of positive integers incremented by a value of 1, and the data of the data set may include partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data. Each partition of the set of partitions may be provided with a unique label of a set of labels; and the control device may transmit the set of node device identifiers to the multiple node devices prior to using the set of node device identifiers to distribute the data set among the multiple node devices based on matches between the set of node device identifiers and a set of hashed values derived from the set of labels through dividing a hash value from a hash taken of each label by a quantity of the multiple node devices.

Prior to the performance of the set of block exchanges, the control device may receive an indication of a total size of the subset of the multiple blocks of data distributed to each node device of the multiple node devices; the control device may derive the set of block exchanges based on the total sizes of the subsets received from the multiple node devices; and the control device may generate a block exchange vector that identifies each source node device and each target node device based on the set of node device identifiers. The processor component may be caused to perform operations including: receive the block exchange vector from the control device as the block exchange instruction for the node device to participate in a performance of the set of block exchanges; and analyze the block exchange vector in view of the node device identifier assigned to the node device to determine whether the node device is to serve as a source node device or a target node device.

In response to the block exchange instruction including an indication that the node device is to serve as a target node, the processor component may be caused to perform operations including: transmit a request, via the network and to the source node device, to transmit the second subset to the node device; and receive, from the source node device via the network, and along with the second subset, an indication of a size of each block of data of the second subset or of each sub-block of data within each block of data of the second subset.

In response to the block exchange instruction including an indication that the node device is to serve as a source node to transmit the first subset of the multiple blocks of data to another device that serves as a target node device in the set of block exchanges, the processor component may be caused to perform operations including: receive, from the other device via the network, a request to transmit the first subset to the other device; and transmit, to the other device via the network, the first subset and an indication of size of each block of data of the first subset or each sub-block of data within each block of data of the first subset.

The data of the data set may include partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data. As part of the registration of the multiple blocks of data, the processor component may be caused to transmit, to the control device via the network, an indication of a size and a hashed value indicative of a partition for each data sub-block of each block of data of the first subset and of the second subset.

The data of the data set may include non-partitioned data; and as part of the registration of the multiple blocks of data, the processor component may be caused to transmit, to the control device via the network, an indication of a size of each block of data of the first subset and of the second subset.

The data of the data set may be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form, wherein each block of data is to be separately encrypted by one of the node devices of the multiple node devices; and as part of the registration of multiple blocks of data, the processor component may be caused to transmit, to the control device via the network, data block encryption data for each block of data of the first subset and of the second subset.

The processor component may be caused to perform operations including receive, from the control device via the network, at least one of a map data and a metadata, wherein: the map data is indicative of the order among the multiple blocks of data, wherein the order among the multiple blocks of data is to be maintained within the one or more storage devices while the data set is stored within the one or more storage devices; and the metadata is indicative of at least one of whether the data of the data set comprises partitioned data and whether the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form. The processor component may be caused to group the at least one of the map data and the metadata together with the blocks of data of the first subset and the second subset into the multiple segments in an order within each segment of the multiple segments and in an order among the multiple segments that corresponds to the ordering among the multiple blocks of data, and in an order that places the at least one of the map data and the metadata ahead of the multiple blocks of data.

In response to a block of data of the first subset or of the second subset exceeding a maximum threshold size imposed on units of data that are transmitted to the one or more storage devices, the processor component may be caused to divide the block of data among two or more segments of the multiple segments to form each segment of the multiple segments to have a size that fits within the minimum threshold size and the maximum threshold size.

A computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium includes instructions operable to cause a processor component to perform operations including receive, at a node device of multiple node devices, and from a control device via a network, a node device identifier of a set of node device identifiers assigned by the control device to multiple node devices, wherein: the set of node device identifiers defines an ascending or descending series of numerical values that define an ordering among the multiple node devices; and the ordering among the node devices defines a corresponding ordering among subsets of multiple blocks of data of a data set that are distributed among the multiple node devices. The processor component is also caused to perform operations including: transmit, to the control device via the network, an indication of a total size of a first subset of the multiple blocks of data that is stored within the storage of the node device; and receive, from the control device via the network, a block exchange instruction for the node device to participate in a performance of a set of block exchanges in which at least one node device of the multiple node devices serves as a source device to transmit one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data to another node device of the multiple node devices that serves as a target node device. In response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a target node to receive a second subset of the multiple blocks of data from another node device that serves as a source node device in the set of block exchanges, the processor component is caused to perform operations including: receive, from the source node device via the network, the second subset; store the second subset in the storage; as part of a registration of the multiple blocks of data by the multiple node devices, transmit, to the control device via the network, an indication of a size of each block of data, or of each sub-block of each block of data, of the first subset and of the second subset, and in an order among the blocks of data of the first subset and the second subset that corresponds to an ordering among the multiple blocks of data that corresponds to the ordering among the multiple node devices; group, by the processor component, the blocks of data of the first subset and the second subset into multiple segments of the data set in an order within each segment of the multiple segments and in an order among the multiple segments that corresponds to the ordering among the multiple blocks of data, wherein each segment of the multiple segments is formed to have a size that meets a minimum threshold size imposed on units of data that are transmitted to one or more storage devices; transmit, to the one or more storage devices via the network, the multiple segments; receive, from the one or more storage devices via the network, multiple segment identifiers, wherein each segment identifier of the multiple segment identifiers corresponds to a segment of the multiple segments; and transmit, to the control device via the network, the multiple segment identifiers in an order that corresponds to the ordering among the multiple segments.

The set of node device identifiers may define a 0-based ascending set of positive integers incremented by a value of 1, and the data of the data set comprises partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data. Each partition of the set of partitions may be provided with a unique label of a set of labels; and the control device transmits the set of node device identifiers to the multiple node devices prior to using the set of node device identifiers to distribute the data set among the multiple node devices based on matches between the set of node device identifiers and a set of hashed values derived from the set of labels through dividing a hash value from a hash taken of each label by a quantity of the multiple node devices.

Prior to the performance of the set of block exchanges, the control device may receive an indication of a total size of the subset of the multiple blocks of data distributed to each node device of the multiple node devices; the control device may derive the set of block exchanges based on the total sizes of the subsets received from the multiple node devices; and the control device may generate a block exchange vector that identifies each source node device and each target node device based on the set of node device identifiers. The processor component may be caused to perform operations including: receive the block exchange vector from the control device as the block exchange instruction for the node device to participate in a performance of the set of block exchanges; and analyze the block exchange vector in view of the node device identifier assigned to the node device to determine whether the node device is to serve as a source node device or a target node device.

In response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a target node, the processor component is caused to perform operations including: transmit a request, via the network and to the source node device, to transmit the second subset to the node device; and receive, from the source node device via the network, and along with the second subset, an indication of a size of each block of data of the second subset or of each sub-block of data within each block of data of the second subset.

In response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a source node to transmit the first subset of the multiple blocks of data to another device that serves as a target node device in the set of block exchanges, the processor component may be caused to perform operations including: receive, from the other device via the network, a request to transmit the first subset to the other device; and transmit, to the other device via the network, the first subset and an indication of size of each block of data of the first subset or each sub-block of data within each block of data of the first subset.

The data of the data set may include partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data. As part of the registration of the multiple blocks of data, the processor component may be caused to transmit, to the control device via the network, an indication of a size and a hashed value indicative of a partition for each data sub-block of each block of data of the first subset and of the second subset.

The data of the data set may include non-partitioned data; and as part of the registration of the multiple blocks of data, the processor component may be caused to transmit, to the control device via the network, an indication of a size of each block of data of the first subset and of the second subset.

The data of the data set may be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form, wherein each block of data is to be separately encrypted by one of the node devices of the multiple node devices; and as part of the registration of multiple blocks of data, the processor component may be caused to transmit, to the control device via the network, data block encryption data for each block of data of the first subset and of the second subset.

The processor component may be caused to perform operations including receive, from the control device via the network, at least one of a map data and a metadata, wherein: the map data is indicative of the order among the multiple blocks of data, wherein the order among the multiple blocks of data is to be maintained within the one or more storage devices while the data set is stored within the one or more storage devices; and the metadata is indicative of at least one of whether the data of the data set comprises partitioned data and whether the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form. The processor component may also be caused to group the at least one of the map data and the metadata together with the blocks of data of the first subset and the second subset into the multiple segments in an order within each segment of the multiple segments and in an order among the multiple segments that corresponds to the ordering among the multiple blocks of data, and in an order that places the at least one of the map data and the metadata ahead of the multiple blocks of data.

In response to a block of data of the first subset or of the second subset exceeding a maximum threshold size imposed on units of data that are transmitted to the one or more storage devices, the processor component may be caused to divide the block of data among two or more segments of the multiple segments to form each segment of the multiple segments to have a size that fits within the minimum threshold size and the maximum threshold size.

A computer-implemented method includes receiving, by a processor component at a node device of multiple node devices, and from a control device via a network, a node device identifier of a set of node device identifiers assigned by the control device to multiple node devices, wherein: the set of node device identifiers defines an ascending or descending series of numerical values that define an ordering among the multiple node devices; and the ordering among the node devices defines a corresponding ordering among subsets of multiple blocks of data of a data set that are distributed among the multiple node devices. The method may also include: transmitting, by the processor component to the control device via the network, an indication of a total size of a first subset of the multiple blocks of data that is stored within the storage of the node device; and receiving, by the processor component from the control device via the network, a block exchange instruction for the node device to participate in a performance of a set of block exchanges in which at least one node device of the multiple node devices serves as a source device to transmit one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data to another node device of the multiple node devices that serves as a target node device. The method may further include, in response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a target node to receive a second subset of the multiple blocks of data from another node device that serves as a source node device in the set of block exchanges, performing operations including: receiving, by the processor component from the source node device via the network, the second subset; storing the second subset in the storage; as part of a registration of the multiple blocks of data by the multiple node devices, transmitting, by the processor component to the control device via the network, an indication of a size of each block of data, or of each sub-block of each block of data, of the first subset and of the second subset, and in an order among the blocks of data of the first subset and the second subset that corresponds to an ordering among the multiple blocks of data that corresponds to the ordering among the multiple node devices; grouping, by the processor component, the blocks of data of the first subset and the second subset into multiple segments of the data set in an order within each segment of the multiple segments and in an order among the multiple segments that corresponds to the ordering among the multiple blocks of data, wherein each segment of the multiple segments is formed to have a size that meets a minimum threshold size imposed on units of data that are transmitted to one or more storage devices; transmitting, by the processor component to the one or more storage devices via the network, the multiple segments; receiving, by the processor component from the one or more storage devices via the network, multiple segment identifiers, wherein each segment identifier of the multiple segment identifiers corresponds to a segment of the multiple segments; and transmitting, by the processor component to the control device via the network, the multiple segment identifiers in an order that corresponds to the ordering among the multiple segments.

The set of node device identifiers may define a 0-based ascending set of positive integers incremented by a value of 1, and the data of the data set may include partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data. Each partition of the set of partitions may be provided with a unique label of a set of labels; and the control device transmits the set of node device identifiers to the multiple node devices prior to using the set of node device identifiers to distribute the data set among the multiple node devices based on matches between the set of node device identifiers and a set of hashed values derived from the set of labels through dividing a hash value from a hash taken of each label by a quantity of the multiple node devices.

Prior to the performance of the set of block exchanges, the control device may receive an indication of a total size of the subset of the multiple blocks of data distributed to each node device of the multiple node devices; the control device may derive the set of block exchanges based on the total sizes of the subsets received from the multiple node devices; and the control device may generate a block exchange vector that identifies each source node device and each target node device based on the set of node device identifiers. The method may include: receiving, by the processor component, the block exchange vector from the control device as the block exchange instruction for the node device to participate in a performance of the set of block exchanges; and analyzing, by the processor component, the block exchange vector in view of the node device identifier assigned to the node device to determine whether the node device is to serve as a source node device or a target node device.

The method may include, in response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a target node, performing operations including: transmitting, by the processor component, a request, via the network and to the source node device, to transmit the second subset to the node device; and receiving, by the processor component, from the source node device via the network, and along with the second subset, an indication of a size of each block of data of the second subset or of each sub-block of data within each block of data of the second subset.

The method may include, in response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a source node to transmit the first subset of the multiple blocks of data to another device that serves as a target node device in the set of block exchanges, performing operations including: receiving, by the processor component, from the other device via the network, a request to transmit the first subset to the other device; and transmitting, by the processor component, to the other device via the network, the first subset and an indication of size of each block of data of the first subset or each sub-block of data within each block of data of the first subset.

The data of the data set may include partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data. As part of the registration of the multiple blocks of data, the method may include transmitting, by the processor component to the control device via the network, an indication of a size and a hashed value indicative of a partition for each data sub-block of each block of data of the first subset and of the second subset.

The data of the data set may include non-partitioned data; and as part of the registration of the multiple blocks of data, the method may include transmitting, by the processor component to the control device via the network, an indication of a size of each block of data of the first subset and of the second subset.

The data of the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form, wherein each block of data is to be separately encrypted by one of the node devices of the multiple node devices; and as part of the registration of multiple blocks of data, the method may include transmitting, by the processor component to the control device via the network, data block encryption data for each block of data of the first subset and of the second subset.

The computer-implemented method may include receiving, by the processor component from the control device via the network, at least one of a map data and a metadata, wherein: the map data is indicative of the order among the multiple blocks of data, wherein the order among the multiple blocks of data is to be maintained within the one or more storage devices while the data set is stored within the one or more storage devices; and the metadata is indicative of at least one of whether the data of the data set comprises partitioned data and whether the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form. The may also include grouping, by the processor component, the at least one of the map data and the metadata together with the blocks of data of the first subset and the second subset into the multiple segments in an order within each segment of the multiple segments and in an order among the multiple segments that corresponds to the ordering among the multiple blocks of data, and in an order that places the at least one of the map data and the metadata ahead of the multiple blocks of data.

The computer-implemented method may include, in response to a block of data of the first subset or of the second subset exceeding a maximum threshold size imposed on units of data that are transmitted to the one or more storage devices, dividing, by the processor component, the block of data among two or more segments of the multiple segments to form each segment of the multiple segments to have a size that fits within the minimum threshold size and the maximum threshold size.

An apparatus includes a processor component and a storage to store instructions that, when executed by the processor component, cause the processor component to perform operations including transmit, from a control device, and to multiple node devices via a network, a set of node device identifiers to assign each node device of the multiple node devices a different node device identifier of the set of node device identifiers, wherein: the set of node device identifiers defines an ascending or descending series of numerical values that define an ordering among the multiple node devices; and the ordering among the node devices defines a corresponding ordering among subsets of multiple blocks of data of a data set that are distributed among the multiple node devices. The processor component is also caused to receive, from the multiple node devices via the network, an indication of a total size of the subset of the multiple blocks of data distributed to each node device of the multiple node devices. The processor component is further caused to derive a set of block exchanges based on the total sizes of the subsets received from the multiple node devices and a minimum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to one or more storage devices, wherein: at least one node device of the multiple node devices serves as a source device to transmit one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data to another node device of the multiple node devices that serves as a target node device; following a performance of the set of block exchanges, the data set remains distributed to a reduced number of the multiple node devices; either each node device of the reduced number of node devices, or each node device but one of the reduced number of node devices, stores an amount of the data of the data set that is greater than the minimum threshold size; and the set of block exchanges follows a block exchange rule that each transfer of one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data in the set of block exchanges is to be from a lower-order source node device and to a higher-order target node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices, or that each transfer of one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data is to be from a higher-order source node device and to a lower-order target node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices. The processor component is still further caused to: generate a block exchange vector that identifies each source node device and each target node device in the set of block exchanges based on the set of node device identifiers; and transmit the block exchange vector to the multiple node devices as a block exchange instruction to cause a performance of the set of block exchanges among the multiple node devices.

The data of the data set may include partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data. Each partition of the set of partitions may be provided with a unique label of a set of labels; the set of node device identifiers defines a 0-based ascending set of positive integers incremented by a value of 1; and prior to using the set of node device identifiers to derive the set of block exchanges, the processor component is caused to use the set of node device identifiers to distribute the data set among the multiple node devices based on matches between the set of node device identifiers and a set of modulo values derived from the set of labels through dividing a hash value from a hash taken of each label by a quantity of the multiple node devices.

In response to receiving the block exchange instruction, a node device of the multiple node devices may perform operations including: analyze the block exchange vector in view of the node device identifier assigned to the node device to determine whether the node device is to serve as a source node device or a target node device; in response to a determination that the node device is to serve as a source node device, employ the block exchange rule in parsing the block exchange vector to identify the corresponding target node device; or in response to a determination that the node device is to serve as a target node device, employ the block exchange rule in parsing the block exchange vector to identify the corresponding source node device.

In response to receiving the block exchange instruction, and in response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a target node to receive a subset of the multiple blocks of data from another node device that is to serve as a source node in the set of block exchanges, a node device of the multiple node devices may perform operations including: transmit a request, via the network and to the source node device, to transmit the subset to the node device; and receive, from the source node device via the network, and along with the subset, an indication of a size of each block of data of the subset or of each sub-block of data within each block of data of the subset.

In response to receiving the block exchange instruction, and in response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a source node to transmit a subset of the multiple blocks of data to another device that is to serve as a target node device in the set of block exchanges, a node device of the multiple node devices may perform operations including: receive, from the other device via the network, a request to transmit the subset to the other device; and transmit, to the other device via the network, the subset and an indication of size of each block of data of the subset or each sub-block of data within each block of data of the subset.

The processor component may be caused to perform operations including: as part of a registration of the multiple blocks of data by the reduced number of node devices following the performance of the set of block exchanges, receive from each node device of the reduced number of node devices, and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, an indication of a size of the block of data or indications of a size of each sub-block of the block of data; and generate, based at least on the indications of size received during registration, map data indicative of an ordering among the multiple blocks of data by which the multiple blocks of data are to be stored within the one or more storage devices, and which stems from the ordering among the subsets of the multiple blocks of data.

The data of the data set may include partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data. As part of the registration of the multiple blocks of data, the processor component may be caused to receive, for each sub-block of each block of data, a hashed value indicative of a partition with which the sub-block is associated; and the processor component may be caused to generate, within the map data and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, a separate map entry that comprises the size and hashed value of each sub-block within the block of data.

The data of the data set may be to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form, wherein each block of data is to be separately encrypted by one of the node devices of the multiple node devices; as part of the registration of multiple blocks of data, the processor component may be caused to receive, for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, data block encryption data by which the block of data is encrypted; and the processor component is caused to generate, within the map data and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, a separate map entry that comprises the data block encryption data for the block of data.

The processor component may be caused to perform operations including: determine a total size of a combination of at least the map data and of a metadata indicative of at least one of whether the data of the data set comprises partitioned data and whether the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form; and determine whether the total size of the combination meets the minimum threshold size. The processor component may also perform operations including in response to a determination that the combination does not meet the minimum threshold size, perform operations including: identify a lowest-order node device or a highest-order node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices that is among the reduced number of node devices; and transmit, to the identified lowest-order node device or highest-order node device, and via the network, the combination of the map data and the metadata.

The processor component may be caused, in response to a determination that the combination does meet the minimum threshold size, to perform operations including: form one or more segments for transmission to the one or more storage devices from the combination of the map data and the metadata that each fit within the minimum threshold size and a maximum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to one or more storage devices; and transmit, to the one or more storage devices via the network, the one or more segments at least partially in parallel with multiple other segments formed from the multiple blocks of data by the reduced number of node devices.

A computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium includes instructions operable to cause a processor component to perform operations including transmit, from a control device, and to multiple node devices via a network, a set of node device identifiers to assign each node device of the multiple node devices a different node device identifier of the set of node device identifiers, wherein: the set of node device identifiers defines an ascending or descending series of numerical values that define an ordering among the multiple node devices; and the ordering among the node devices defines a corresponding ordering among subsets of multiple blocks of data of a data set that are distributed among the multiple node devices. The processor component is also caused to receive, from the multiple node devices via the network, an indication of a total size of the subset of the multiple blocks of data distributed to each node device of the multiple node devices. The processor component is further caused to derive, by the processor component, a set of block exchanges based on the total sizes of the subsets received from the multiple node devices and a minimum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to one or more storage devices, wherein: at least one node device of the multiple node devices serves as a source device to transmit one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data to another node device of the multiple node devices that serves as a target node device; following a performance of the set of block exchanges, the data set remains distributed to a reduced number of the multiple node devices; either each node device of the reduced number of node devices, or each node device but one of the reduced number of node devices, stores an amount of the data of the data set that is greater than the minimum threshold size; and the set of block exchanges follows a block exchange rule that each transfer of one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data in the set of block exchanges is to be from a lower-order source node device and to a higher-order target node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices, or that each transfer of one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data is to be from a higher-order source node device and to a lower-order target node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices. The processor component is still further caused to generate a block exchange vector that identifies each source node device and each target node device in the set of block exchanges based on the set of node device identifiers; and transmit the block exchange vector to the multiple node devices as a block exchange instruction to cause a performance of the set of block exchanges among the multiple node devices.

The data of the data set may include partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data. Each partition of the set of partitions is provided with a unique label of a set of labels; the set of node device identifiers defines a 0-based ascending set of positive integers incremented by a value of 1; and prior to using the set of node device identifiers to derive the set of block exchanges, the processor component is caused to use the set of node device identifiers to distribute the data set among the multiple node devices based on matches between the set of node device identifiers and a set of modulo values derived from the set of labels through dividing a hash value from a hash taken of each label by a quantity of the multiple node devices.

In response to receiving the block exchange instruction, a node device of the multiple node devices may perform operations including: analyze the block exchange vector in view of the node device identifier assigned to the node device to determine whether the node device is to serve as a source node device or a target node device; in response to a determination that the node device is to serve as a source node device, employ the block exchange rule in parsing the block exchange vector to identify the corresponding target node device; or in response to a determination that the node device is to serve as a target node device, employ the block exchange rule in parsing the block exchange vector to identify the corresponding source node device.

In response to receiving the block exchange instruction, and in response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a target node to receive a subset of the multiple blocks of data from another node device that is to serve as a source node in the set of block exchanges, a node device of the multiple node devices performs operations including: transmit a request, via the network and to the source node device, to transmit the subset to the node device; and receive, from the source node device via the network, and along with the subset, an indication of a size of each block of data of the subset or of each sub-block of data within each block of data of the subset.

In response to receiving the block exchange instruction, and in response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a source node to transmit a subset of the multiple blocks of data to another device that is to serve as a target node device in the set of block exchanges, a node device of the multiple node devices performs operations including: receive, from the other device via the network, a request to transmit the subset to the other device; and transmit, to the other device via the network, the subset and an indication of size of each block of data of the subset or each sub-block of data within each block of data of the subset.

The processor component may be caused to perform operations including: as part of a registration of the multiple blocks of data by the reduced number of node devices following the performance of the set of block exchanges, receive from each node device of the reduced number of node devices, and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, an indication of a size of the block of data or indications of a size of each sub-block of the block of data; and generate, based at least on the indications of size received during registration, map data indicative of an ordering among the multiple blocks of data by which the multiple blocks of data are to be stored within the one or more storage devices, and which stems from the ordering among the subsets of the multiple blocks of data.

The data of the data set may include partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data. As part of the registration of the multiple blocks of data, the processor component may be caused to receive, for each sub-block of each block of data, a hashed value indicative of a partition with which the sub-block is associated. The processor component may be caused to generate, within the map data and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, a separate map entry that comprises the size and hashed value of each sub-block within the block of data.

The data of the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form, wherein each block of data is to be separately encrypted by one of the node devices of the multiple node devices; as part of the registration of multiple blocks of data, the processor component may be caused to receive, for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, data block encryption data by which the block of data is encrypted; and the processor component may be caused to generate, within the map data and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, a separate map entry that comprises the data block encryption data for the block of data.

The processor component may be caused to perform operations including: determine a total size of a combination of at least the map data and of a metadata indicative of at least one of whether the data of the data set comprises partitioned data and whether the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form; and determine whether the total size of the combination meets the minimum threshold size. In response to a determination that the combination does not meet the minimum threshold size, the processor component may also be caused to perform operations including: identify a lowest-order node device or a highest-order node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices that is among the reduced number of node devices; and transmit, to the identified lowest-order node device or highest-order node device, and via the network, the combination of the map data and the metadata.

The processor component may be caused, in response to a determination that the combination does meet the minimum threshold size, to perform operations including: form one or more segments for transmission to the one or more storage devices from the combination of the map data and the metadata that each fit within the minimum threshold size and a maximum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to one or more storage devices; and transmit, to the one or more storage devices via the network, the one or more segments at least partially in parallel with multiple other segments formed from the multiple blocks of data by the reduced number of node devices.

A computer-implemented method includes transmitting, by a processor component from a control device, and to multiple node devices via a network, a set of node device identifiers to assign each node device of the multiple node devices a different node device identifier of the set of node device identifiers, wherein: the set of node device identifiers defines an ascending or descending series of numerical values that define an ordering among the multiple node devices; and the ordering among the node devices defines a corresponding ordering among subsets of multiple blocks of data of a data set that are distributed among the multiple node devices. The method also includes receiving, by the processor component from the multiple node devices via the network, an indication of a total size of the subset of the multiple blocks of data distributed to each node device of the multiple node devices. The method further includes deriving, by the processor component, a set of block exchanges based on the total sizes of the subsets received from the multiple node devices and a minimum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to one or more storage devices, wherein: at least one node device of the multiple node devices serves as a source device to transmit one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data to another node device of the multiple node devices that serves as a target node device; following a performance of the set of block exchanges, the data set remains distributed to a reduced number of the multiple node devices; either each node device of the reduced number of node devices, or each node device but one of the reduced number of node devices, stores an amount of the data of the data set that is greater than the minimum threshold size; and the set of block exchanges follows a block exchange rule that each transfer of one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data in the set of block exchanges is to be from a lower-order source node device and to a higher-order target node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices, or that each transfer of one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data is to be from a higher-order source node device and to a lower-order target node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices. The method still further includes: generating, by the processor component, a block exchange vector that identifies each source node device and each target node device in the set of block exchanges based on the set of node device identifiers; and transmitting, by the processor component, the block exchange vector to the multiple node devices as a block exchange instruction to cause a performance of the set of block exchanges among the multiple node devices.

The data of the data set may include partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data. Each partition of the set of partitions may be provided with a unique label of a set of labels; the set of node device identifiers may define a 0-based ascending set of positive integers incremented by a value of 1; and the method may include, prior to using the set of node device identifiers to derive the set of block exchanges, using the set of node device identifiers to distribute the data set among the multiple node devices based on matches between the set of node device identifiers and a set of modulo values derived from the set of labels through dividing a hash value from a hash taken of each label by a quantity of the multiple node devices.

In response to receiving the block exchange instruction, a node device of the multiple node devices may perform operations including: analyze the block exchange vector in view of the node device identifier assigned to the node device to determine whether the node device is to serve as a source node device or a target node device; in response to a determination that the node device is to serve as a source node device, employ the block exchange rule in parsing the block exchange vector to identify the corresponding target node device; or in response to a determination that the node device is to serve as a target node device, employ the block exchange rule in parsing the block exchange vector to identify the corresponding source node device.

In response to receiving the block exchange instruction, and in response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a target node to receive a subset of the multiple blocks of data from another node device that is to serve as a source node in the set of block exchanges, a node device of the multiple node devices may perform operations including: transmit a request, via the network and to the source node device, to transmit the subset to the node device; and receive, from the source node device via the network, and along with the subset, an indication of a size of each block of data of the subset or of each sub-block of data within each block of data of the subset.

In response to receiving the block exchange instruction, and in response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a source node to transmit a subset of the multiple blocks of data to another device that is to serve as a target node device in the set of block exchanges, a node device of the multiple node devices may perform operations including: receive, from the other device via the network, a request to transmit the subset to the other device; and transmit, to the other device via the network, the subset and an indication of size of each block of data of the subset or each sub-block of data within each block of data of the subset.

The method may further include, as part of a registration of the multiple blocks of data by the reduced number of node devices following the performance of the set of block exchanges, receiving by the processor component from each node device of the reduced number of node devices, and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, an indication of a size of the block of data or indications of a size of each sub-block of the block of data; and generating, by the processor component, based at least on the indications of size received during registration, map data indicative of an ordering among the multiple blocks of data by which the multiple blocks of data are to be stored within the one or more storage devices, and which stems from the ordering among the subsets of the multiple blocks of data.

The data of the data set may include partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data. The method may further include: as part of the registration of the multiple blocks of data, receiving, by the processor component, for each sub-block of each block of data, a hashed value indicative of a partition with which the sub-block is associated; and generating, by the processor component, within the map data and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, a separate map entry that comprises the size and hashed value of each sub-block within the block of data.

The data of the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form, wherein each block of data is to be separately encrypted by one of the node devices of the multiple node devices, and the method may include: as part of the registration of multiple blocks of data, receiving, by the processor component, for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, data block encryption data by which the block of data is encrypted; and generating, by the processor component, within the map data and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, a separate map entry that comprises the data block encryption data for the block of data.

The method may further include: determining, by the processor component, a total size of a combination of at least the map data and of a metadata indicative of at least one of whether the data of the data set comprises partitioned data and whether the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form; and determining, by the processor component, whether the total size of the combination meets the minimum threshold size. In response to a determination that the combination does not meet the minimum threshold size, performing operations including: identifying, by the processor component, a lowest-order node device or a highest-order node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices that is among the reduced number of node devices; and transmitting, by the processor component, to the identified lowest-order node device or highest-order node device, and via the network, the combination of the map data and the metadata.

The method may further include, in response to a determination that the combination does meet the minimum threshold size, performing operations including: forming, by the processor component, one or more segments for transmission to the one or more storage devices from the combination of the map data and the metadata that each fit within the minimum threshold size and a maximum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to one or more storage devices; and transmitting, by the processor component, to the one or more storage devices via the network, the one or more segments at least partially in parallel with multiple other segments formed from the multiple blocks of data by the reduced number of node devices.

An apparatus includes a processor component and a storage to store instructions that, when executed by the processor component, cause the processor component to perform operations including transmit, from a control device, and to multiple node devices via a network, a set of node device identifiers to assign each node device of the multiple node devices a different node device identifier of the set of node device identifiers, wherein: the set of node device identifiers defines an ascending or descending series of numerical values that define an ordering among the multiple node devices; and the ordering among the node devices defines a corresponding ordering among subsets of multiple blocks of data of a data set that are distributed among the multiple node devices. The processor component is also caused to, following a performance of a set of block exchanges among the multiple node devices in which the data set is redistributed to a reduced number of the multiple node devices, and as part of a registration of the multiple blocks of data by the reduced number of node devices, receive from each node device of the reduced number of node devices, and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, an indication of a size of the block of data or indications of a size of each sub-block of the block of data. The processor component is further caused to generate map data based at least on the indications of size received during registration, wherein: the map data comprises a separate map entry of multiple map entries for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data; the multiple map entries are organized within the map data in an ordering among the map entries that defines an ordering among the multiple blocks of data by which the multiple blocks of data are to be stored within one or more storage devices, which stems from the ordering among the subsets of the multiple blocks of data; and each map entry comprises an indication of a size of the corresponding block of data or indications of size of each sub-block of the corresponding block of data. The processor component is still further caused to: generate metadata indicative of at least one of whether the data of the data set comprises partitioned data and whether the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form; and determine whether a total size of a combination of at least the map data and the metadata meets a minimum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to the one or more storage devices. The processor component is yet further caused to: in response to a determination that the combination of at least the map data and the metadata does meet the minimum threshold size, perform operations comprising: form one or more segments for transmission to the one or more storage devices from the combination of the map data and the metadata that each fit the minimum threshold size and a maximum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to the one or more storage devices; and transmit, to the one or more storage devices via the network, the one or more segments at least partially in parallel with multiple other segments formed from the multiple blocks of data by the reduced number of node devices, wherein each segment of the multiple segments is formed by a node device of the reduced number of node devices to fit the minimum threshold size and the maximum threshold size.

The data of the data set may include partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data. Each partition of the set of partitions may be provided with a unique label of a set of labels; the set of node device identifiers may define a 0-based ascending set of positive integers incremented by a value of 1; and prior to using the set of node device identifiers to derive the set of block exchanges, the processor component may be caused to use the set of node device identifiers to distribute the data set among the multiple node devices based on matches between the set of node device identifiers and a set of modulo values derived from the set of labels through dividing a hash value from a hash taken of each label by a quantity of the multiple node devices.

The data of the data set may include partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data. As part of the registration of the multiple blocks of data, the processor component may be caused to receive, for each sub-block of each block of data, a hashed value indicative of a partition with which the sub-block is associated; each map entry may include a separate map sub-entry of multiple map sub-entries for each sub-block within the corresponding block of data; and each map sub-entry may include an indication of a size and a hashed value of the corresponding sub-block.

The data of the data set may be to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form, wherein each block of data is to be separately encrypted by one of the node devices of the multiple node devices; as part of the registration of multiple blocks of data, the processor component may be caused to receive, for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, data block encryption data by which the block of data is encrypted; and each map entry may include the data block encryption data for the corresponding block of data.

The processor component may be caused to perform operations including: coordinate, through the network with the reduced number of node devices, to serialize transmissions to the control device by the reduced number of node devices during registration of the multiple blocks of data to cause the reduced number of node devices to convey at least the indications of the sizes of the blocks of data or the sizes of the sub-blocks within each block of data to the control device in an order that follows the ordering among the multiple node devices; and generate the map entries of the map data at least partially during the registration as the serialized transmissions are received at the control device.

The processor component may be caused to perform operations including instantiate a separate reception thread of multiple reception threads to correspond to each node device of the reduced number of node devices; and within each reception thread of the multiple reception threads, perform operations including: monitor the corresponding node device, via the network, for a registration transmission of an indication of at least a size of a block of data or of sizes of sub-blocks within a block of data to the control device during registration of the multiple blocks of data; and store the indication. The processor component may also be caused to: receive, through the multiple reception threads, the registration transmissions from the reduced number of node devices at least partially in parallel; and following receipt of the registration transmissions from the reduced number of node devices, generate the map entries of the map data while retrieving the indication of size of a block of data or of sizes of sub-blocks for each map entry from the multiple reception threads as the map entries are generated to follow the ordering among the multiple node devices.

The processor component may be caused to perform operations including determine whether a size of the map data exceeds a map size threshold. The processor may also be caused to perform operations including: in response to a determination that the map data does exceed the map size threshold, divide the map data into multiple map extensions, wherein each map extension comprises a subset of the map entries, and the map entries are organized within each map extension and among the multiple map extension to maintain the ordering among the map entries; generate a map base comprising a set of pointers that each points to a corresponding one of the map extensions; and as part of forming the one or more segments, organize the map data and the metadata to cause the metadata to follow the map base and to precede the multiple map extensions.

The data of the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form, wherein each block of data is to be separately encrypted by one of the node devices of the multiple node devices; and each map entry comprises data block encryption data by which the corresponding block of data is encrypted by one of the multiple node devices. The processor component may be caused to perform operations including: starting with the map extension at an end of the ordering among the map extensions, separately encrypt each map extension to generate a corresponding encrypted map extension in an order that follows the ordering among the map extensions; except for the map extension at which encryption of the map extensions is started, before each succeeding map extension is encrypted in following the ordering among the map extensions, insert therein map extension encryption data used to encrypt the preceding map extension; and before encryption of the map base, insert therein map extension encryption data used to encrypt the last map extension to be encrypted.

The processor component may be caused, in response to a determination that the combination of at least the map data and the metadata does not meet the minimum threshold size, to perform operations including: identify a lowest-order node device or a highest-order node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices that are among the reduced number of node devices; and transmit, to the identified lowest-order node device or highest-order node device, and via the network, the combination of the map data and the metadata to enable the combining of the map data and the metadata with at least one block of data to form at least one segment among the multiple other segments.

The processor component may be caused, prior to the performance of the set of block exchanges, to perform operations including: receive, from the multiple node devices via the network, an indication of a total size of the subset of the multiple blocks of data distributed to each node device of the multiple node devices, and derive, by the processor component, the set of block exchanges based on the total sizes of the subsets received from the multiple node devices and a minimum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to one or more storage devices, wherein: at least one node device of the multiple node devices serves as a source device to transmit one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data to another node device of the multiple node devices that serves as a target node device; following a performance of the set of block exchanges, the data set remains distributed to a reduced number of the multiple node devices; either each node device of the reduced number of node devices, or each node device but one of the reduced number of node devices, stores an amount of the data of the data set that is greater than the minimum threshold size; and the set of block exchanges follows a block exchange rule that each transfer of one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data in the set of block exchanges is to be from a lower-order source node device and to a higher-order target node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices, or that each transfer of one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data is to be from a higher-order source node device and to a lower-order target node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices. The processor component may also be caused to: generate a block exchange vector that identifies each source node device and each target node device in the set of block exchanges based on the set of node device identifiers, and transmit the block exchange vector to the multiple node devices as a block exchange instruction to cause a performance of the set of block exchanges among the multiple node devices, wherein, in response to receiving the block exchange instruction, a node device of the multiple node devices performs operations including: analyze the block exchange vector in view of the node device identifier assigned to the node device to determine whether the node device is to serve as a source node device or a target node device; in response to a determination that the node device is to serve as a source node device, employ the block exchange rule in parsing the block exchange vector to identify the corresponding target node device; or in response to a determination that the node device is to serve as a target node device, employ the block exchange rule in parsing the block exchange vector to identify the corresponding source node device.

A computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium includes instructions operable to cause a processor component to transmit, from a control device, and to multiple node devices via a network, a set of node device identifiers to assign each node device of the multiple node devices a different node device identifier of the set of node device identifiers, wherein: the set of node device identifiers defines an ascending or descending series of numerical values that define an ordering among the multiple node devices; and the ordering among the node devices defines a corresponding ordering among subsets of multiple blocks of data of a data set that are distributed among the multiple node devices. The processor component is also caused to, following a performance of a set of block exchanges among the multiple node devices in which the data set is redistributed to a reduced number of the multiple node devices, and as part of a registration of the multiple blocks of data by the reduced number of node devices, receive from each node device of the reduced number of node devices, and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, an indication of a size of the block of data or indications of a size of each sub-block of the block of data. The processor component is further caused to generate map data based at least on the indications of size received during registration, wherein: the map data comprises a separate map entry of multiple map entries for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data; the multiple map entries are organized within the map data in an ordering among the map entries that defines an ordering among the multiple blocks of data by which the multiple blocks of data are to be stored within one or more storage devices, which stems from the ordering among the subsets of the multiple blocks of data; and each map entry comprises an indication of a size of the corresponding block of data or indications of size of each sub-block of the corresponding block of data. The processor component is further caused to: generate metadata indicative of at least one of whether the data of the data set comprises partitioned data and whether the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form; and determine whether a total size of a combination of at least the map data and the metadata meets a minimum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to the one or more storage devices. The processor component is still further caused to, in response to a determination that the combination of at least the map data and the metadata does meet the minimum threshold size, perform operations including: form one or more segments for transmission to the one or more storage devices from the combination of the map data and the metadata that each fit the minimum threshold size and a maximum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to the one or more storage devices; and transmit, to the one or more storage devices via the network, the one or more segments at least partially in parallel with multiple other segments formed from the multiple blocks of data by the reduced number of node devices, wherein each segment of the multiple segments is formed by a node device of the reduced number of node devices to fit the minimum threshold size and the maximum threshold size.

The data of the data set may include partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data. Each partition of the set of partitions is provided with a unique label of a set of labels; the set of node device identifiers defines a 0-based ascending set of positive integers incremented by a value of 1; and prior to using the set of node device identifiers to derive the set of block exchanges, the processor component is caused to use the set of node device identifiers to distribute the data set among the multiple node devices based on matches between the set of node device identifiers and a set of modulo values derived from the set of labels through dividing a hash value from a hash taken of each label by a quantity of the multiple node devices.

The data of the data set comprises partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data. As part of the registration of the multiple blocks of data, the processor component may be caused to receive, for each sub-block of each block of data, a hashed value indicative of a partition with which the sub-block is associated; each map entry may include a separate map sub-entry of multiple map sub-entries for each sub-block within the corresponding block of data; and each map sub-entry comprises an indication of a size and a hashed value of the corresponding sub-block.

The data of the data set may be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form, wherein each block of data is to be separately encrypted by one of the node devices of the multiple node devices; as part of the registration of multiple blocks of data, the processor component may be caused to receive, for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, data block encryption data by which the block of data is encrypted; and each map entry comprises the data block encryption data for the corresponding block of data.

The processor component may be caused to perform operations including: coordinate, through the network with the reduced number of node devices, to serialize transmissions to the control device by the reduced number of node devices during registration of the multiple blocks of data to cause the reduced number of node devices to convey at least the indications of the sizes of the blocks of data or the sizes of the sub-blocks within each block of data to the control device in an order that follows the ordering among the multiple node devices; and generate the map entries of the map data at least partially during the registration as the serialized transmissions are received at the control device.

The processor component may be caused to perform operations including: instantiate a separate reception thread of multiple reception threads to correspond to each node device of the reduced number of node devices, and within each reception thread of the multiple reception threads, perform operations including: monitor the corresponding node device, via the network, for a registration transmission of an indication of at least a size of a block of data or of sizes of sub-blocks within a block of data to the control device during registration of the multiple blocks of data; and store the indication. The processor component may also be caused to receive, through the multiple reception threads, the registration transmissions from the reduced number of node devices at least partially in parallel; and following receipt of the registration transmissions from the reduced number of node devices, generate the map entries of the map data while retrieving the indication of size of a block of data or of sizes of sub-blocks for each map entry from the multiple reception threads as the map entries are generated to follow the ordering among the multiple node devices.

The processor component may be caused to determine whether a size of the map data exceeds a map size threshold. The processor component may also be caused to, in response to a determination that the map data does exceed the map size threshold, divide the map data into multiple map extensions, wherein: each map extension comprises a subset of the map entries; and the map entries are organized within each map extension and among the multiple map extension to maintain the ordering among the map entries. The processor component may be further caused to generate a map base comprising a set of pointers that each points to a corresponding one of the map extensions; and as part of forming the one or more segments, organize the map data and the metadata to cause the metadata to follow the map base and to precede the multiple map extensions.

The data of the data set may be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form, wherein each block of data is to be separately encrypted by one of the node devices of the multiple node devices; and each map entry comprises data block encryption data by which the corresponding block of data is encrypted by one of the multiple node devices. The processor component may be caused to perform operations including: starting with the map extension at an end of the ordering among the map extensions, separately encrypt each map extension to generate a corresponding encrypted map extension in an order that follows the ordering among the map extensions; except for the map extension at which encryption of the map extensions is started, before each succeeding map extension is encrypted in following the ordering among the map extensions, insert therein map extension encryption data used to encrypt the preceding map extension; and before encryption of the map base, insert therein map extension encryption data used to encrypt the last map extension to be encrypted.

The processor component may be caused, in response to a determination that the combination of at least the map data and the metadata does not meet the minimum threshold size, to perform operations including: identify a lowest-order node device or a highest-order node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices that are among the reduced number of node devices; and transmit, to the identified lowest-order node device or highest-order node device, and via the network, the combination of the map data and the metadata to enable the combining of the map data and the metadata with at least one block of data to form at least one segment among the multiple other segments.

The processor component may be caused, prior to the performance of the set of block exchanges, to receive, from the multiple node devices via the network, an indication of a total size of the subset of the multiple blocks of data distributed to each node device of the multiple node devices. The processor component may also be caused to derive the set of block exchanges based on the total sizes of the subsets received from the multiple node devices and a minimum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to one or more storage devices, wherein: at least one node device of the multiple node devices serves as a source device to transmit one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data to another node device of the multiple node devices that serves as a target node device; following a performance of the set of block exchanges, the data set remains distributed to a reduced number of the multiple node devices; either each node device of the reduced number of node devices, or each node device but one of the reduced number of node devices, stores an amount of the data of the data set that is greater than the minimum threshold size; and the set of block exchanges follows a block exchange rule that each transfer of one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data in the set of block exchanges is to be from a lower-order source node device and to a higher-order target node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices, or that each transfer of one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data is to be from a higher-order source node device and to a lower-order target node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices. The processor component may further be caused to generate a block exchange vector that identifies each source node device and each target node device in the set of block exchanges based on the set of node device identifiers. The processor component may still further be caused to transmit the block exchange vector to the multiple node devices as a block exchange instruction to cause a performance of the set of block exchanges among the multiple node devices, wherein, in response to receiving the block exchange instruction, a node device of the multiple node devices performs operations including: analyze the block exchange vector in view of the node device identifier assigned to the node device to determine whether the node device is to serve as a source node device or a target node device; in response to a determination that the node device is to serve as a source node device, employ the block exchange rule in parsing the block exchange vector to identify the corresponding target node device; or in response to a determination that the node device is to serve as a target node device, employ the block exchange rule in parsing the block exchange vector to identify the corresponding source node device.

A computer-implemented method includes transmitting, by a processor component from a control device, and to multiple node devices via a network, a set of node device identifiers to assign each node device of the multiple node devices a different node device identifier of the set of node device identifiers, wherein: the set of node device identifiers defines an ascending or descending series of numerical values that define an ordering among the multiple node devices; and the ordering among the node devices defines a corresponding ordering among subsets of multiple blocks of data of a data set that are distributed among the multiple node devices. The method also includes, following a performance of a set of block exchanges among the multiple node devices in which the data set is redistributed to a reduced number of the multiple node devices, and as part of a registration of the multiple blocks of data by the reduced number of node devices, receiving, by the processor component, from each node device of the reduced number of node devices, and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, an indication of a size of the block of data or indications of a size of each sub-block of the block of data. The method further includes generating, by the processor component, map data based at least on the indications of size received during registration, wherein: the map data comprises a separate map entry of multiple map entries for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data; the multiple map entries are organized within the map data in an ordering among the map entries that defines an ordering among the multiple blocks of data by which the multiple blocks of data are to be stored within one or more storage devices, which stems from the ordering among the subsets of the multiple blocks of data; and each map entry comprises an indication of a size of the corresponding block of data or indications of size of each sub-block of the corresponding block of data. The method still further includes: generating, by the processor component, metadata indicative of at least one of whether the data of the data set comprises partitioned data and whether the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form; and determining, by the processor component, whether a total size of a combination of at least the map data and the metadata meets a minimum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to the one or more storage devices. The method yet further includes in response to a determination that the combination of at least the map data and the metadata does meet the minimum threshold size, performing operations including: forming, by the processor component, one or more segments for transmission to the one or more storage devices from the combination of the map data and the metadata that each fit the minimum threshold size and a maximum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to the one or more storage devices; and transmitting, by the processor component, to the one or more storage devices via the network, the one or more segments at least partially in parallel with multiple other segments formed from the multiple blocks of data by the reduced number of node devices, wherein each segment of the multiple segments is formed by a node device of the reduced number of node devices to fit the minimum threshold size and the maximum threshold size.

The data of the data set may include partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data. Each partition of the set of partitions may be provided with a unique label of a set of labels; the set of node device identifiers may define a 0-based ascending set of positive integers incremented by a value of 1; and the method may include, prior to using the set of node device identifiers to derive the set of block exchanges, using the set of node device identifiers to distribute the data set among the multiple node devices based on matches between the set of node device identifiers and a set of modulo values derived from the set of labels through dividing a hash value from a hash taken of each label by a quantity of the multiple node devices.

The data of the data set may include partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data. As part of the registration of the multiple blocks of data, the processor component may be caused to receive, for each sub-block of each block of data, a hashed value indicative of a partition with which the sub-block is associated; each map entry may include a separate map sub-entry of multiple map sub-entries for each sub-block within the corresponding block of data; and each map sub-entry may include an indication of a size and a hashed value of the corresponding sub-block.

The data of the data set may be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form, wherein each block of data is to be separately encrypted by one of the node devices of the multiple node devices; the method may include, as part of the registration of multiple blocks of data, receiving, by the processor component, for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, data block encryption data by which the block of data is encrypted; and each map entry may include the data block encryption data for the corresponding block of data.

The computer-implemented method may include: coordinating, by the processor component, through the network with the reduced number of node devices, to serialize transmissions to the control device by the reduced number of node devices during registration of the multiple blocks of data to cause the reduced number of node devices to convey at least the indications of the sizes of the blocks of data or the sizes of the sub-blocks within each block of data to the control device in an order that follows the ordering among the multiple node devices; and generating, by the processor component, the map entries of the map data at least partially during the registration as the serialized transmissions are received at the control device.

The computer-implemented method may include instantiating, by the processor component, a separate reception thread of multiple reception threads to correspond to each node device of the reduced number of node devices. The method may also include, within each reception thread of the multiple reception threads, performing operations including: monitoring, by the processor component, the corresponding node device, via the network, for a registration transmission of an indication of at least a size of a block of data or of sizes of sub-blocks within a block of data to the control device during registration of the multiple blocks of data; and storing, by the processor component, the indication. The method may further include: receiving, by the processor component through the multiple reception threads, the registration transmissions from the reduced number of node devices at least partially in parallel; and following receipt of the registration transmissions from the reduced number of node devices, generating, by the processor component, the map entries of the map data while retrieving the indication of size of a block of data or of sizes of sub-blocks for each map entry from the multiple reception threads as the map entries are generated to follow the ordering among the multiple node devices.

The computer-implemented method may include determining, by the processor component, whether a size of the map data exceeds a map size threshold. The method may also include, in response to a determination that the map data does exceed the map size threshold, performing operations including: dividing, by the processor component, the map data into multiple map extensions, wherein each map extension comprises a subset of the map entries, and the map entries are organized within each map extension and among the multiple map extension to maintain the ordering among the map entries. The method may further include, generating, by the processor component, a map base comprising a set of pointers that each points to a corresponding one of the map extensions; and as part of forming the one or more segments, organizing, by the processor component, the map data and the metadata to cause the metadata to follow the map base and to precede the multiple map extensions.

The data of the data set may be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form, wherein each block of data is to be separately encrypted by one of the node devices of the multiple node devices; and each map entry may include data block encryption data by which the corresponding block of data is encrypted by one of the multiple node devices. The method may further include: starting with the map extension at an end of the ordering among the map extensions, separately encrypting, by the processor component, each map extension to generate a corresponding encrypted map extension in an order that follows the ordering among the map extensions; except for the map extension at which encryption of the map extensions is started, before each succeeding map extension is encrypted in following the ordering among the map extensions, inserting, by the processor component, therein map extension encryption data used to encrypt the preceding map extension; and before encryption of the map base, inserting, by the processor component, therein map extension encryption data used to encrypt the last map extension to be encrypted.

The computer-implemented method may include, in response to a determination that the combination of at least the map data and the metadata does not meet the minimum threshold size, to perform operations including: identifying, by the processor component, a lowest-order node device or a highest-order node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices that are among the reduced number of node devices; and transmitting, by the processor component, to the identified lowest-order node device or highest-order node device, and via the network, the combination of the map data and the metadata to enable the combining of the map data and the metadata with at least one block of data to form at least one segment among the multiple other segments.

The computer-implemented method may include receiving, by the processor component from the multiple node devices via the network, an indication of a total size of the subset of the multiple blocks of data distributed to each node device of the multiple node devices. The method also includes deriving, by the processor component, the set of block exchanges based on the total sizes of the subsets received from the multiple node devices and a minimum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to one or more storage devices, wherein: at least one node device of the multiple node devices serves as a source device to transmit one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data to another node device of the multiple node devices that serves as a target node device; following a performance of the set of block exchanges, the data set remains distributed to a reduced number of the multiple node devices; either each node device of the reduced number of node devices, or each node device but one of the reduced number of node devices, stores an amount of the data of the data set that is greater than the minimum threshold size; and the set of block exchanges follows a block exchange rule that each transfer of one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data in the set of block exchanges is to be from a lower-order source node device and to a higher-order target node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices, or that each transfer of one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data is to be from a higher-order source node device and to a lower-order target node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices. The method may further include generating, by the processor component, a block exchange vector that identifies each source node device and each target node device in the set of block exchanges based on the set of node device identifiers. The method may still further include transmitting, by the processor component, the block exchange vector to the multiple node devices as a block exchange instruction to cause a performance of the set of block exchanges among the multiple node devices, wherein, in response to receiving the block exchange instruction, a node device of the multiple node devices performs operations including: analyzing the block exchange vector in view of the node device identifier assigned to the node device to determine whether the node device is to serve as a source node device or a target node device; in response to a determination that the node device is to serve as a source node device, employing the block exchange rule in parsing the block exchange vector to identify the corresponding target node device; or in response to a determination that the node device is to serve as a target node device, employing the block exchange rule in parsing the block exchange vector to identify the corresponding source node device.

The foregoing, together with other features and embodiments, will become more apparent upon referring to the following specification, claims, and accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is described in conjunction with the appended figures:

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram that provides an illustration of the hardware components of a computing system, according to some embodiments of the present technology.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example network including an example set of devices communicating with each other over an exchange system and via a network, according to some embodiments of the present technology.

FIG. 3 illustrates a representation of a conceptual model of a communications protocol system, according to some embodiments of the present technology.

FIG. 4 illustrates a communications grid computing system including a variety of control and worker nodes, according to some embodiments of the present technology.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process for adjusting a communications grid or a work project in a communications grid after a failure of a node, according to some embodiments of the present technology.

FIG. 6 illustrates a portion of a communications grid computing system including a control node and a worker node, according to some embodiments of the present technology.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process for executing a data analysis or processing project, according to some embodiments of the present technology.

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram including components of an Event Stream Processing Engine (ESPE), according to embodiments of the present technology.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process including operations performed by an event stream processing engine, according to some embodiments of the present technology.

FIG. 10 illustrates an ESP system interfacing between a publishing device and multiple event subscribing devices, according to embodiments of the present technology.

FIG. 11 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process of generating and using a machine-learning model according to some aspects.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example machine-learning model based on a neural network.

FIGS. 13A, 13B and 13C each illustrate an example embodiment of a distributed processing system.

FIGS. 14A, 14B and 14C each illustrate an example embodiment of distribution of portions of a data set and corresponding data blocks thereof.

FIGS. 15A, 15B and 15C each illustrate an example embodiment of distribution of portions of a data set and corresponding encrypted data blocks thereof.

FIGS. 16A and 16B each illustrate an example embodiment of encryption of portions of a data set to generate encrypted blocks thereof.

FIGS. 17A and 17B each illustrate an example embodiment of grouping of encrypted blocks of a data set in preparation for transmission for storage thereof.

FIGS. 18A, 18B, 18C, 18D, 18E, 18F, 18G and 18H, together, illustrate an example embodiment of grouping and transmission of encrypted blocks of a data set for storage.

FIGS. 19A, 19B, 19C, 19D, 19E, 19F, 19G, 19H and 19I, together, illustrate an example embodiment of grouping and transmission of encrypted blocks of a data set for storage.

FIGS. 20A, 20B, 20C, 20D, 20E, 20F, 20G and 20H, together, illustrate an example of storing encrypted data blocks of non-partitioned data of a data set in segments.

FIGS. 21A, 21B, 21C, 21D and 21E, together, illustrate an example of retrieving encrypted data blocks of non-partitioned data of a data set.

FIGS. 22A and 22B, together, illustrate an example of storing encrypted data blocks of partitioned data of a data set in segments.

FIGS. 23A, 23B, 23C and 23D, together, illustrate an example of retrieving encrypted data blocks of partitioned data of a data set.

FIGS. 24A, 24B, 24C and 24D, together, illustrate an example embodiment of a logic flow of a node device storing encrypted data blocks of a data set as segments.

FIG. 25 illustrates an example embodiment of a logic flow of a node retrieving encrypted data blocks of a data set.

FIGS. 26A, 26B, 26C and 26D, together, illustrate an example embodiment of a logic flow of a control device coordinating storage of encrypted data blocks of a data set by node devices as segments.

FIGS. 27A, 27B and 27C, together, illustrate an example embodiment of a logic flow of a control device coordinating retrieval of encrypted data blocks of a data set by node devices.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments described herein are generally directed to inter-device coordination and data set organization to improve distributed encryption, storage, retrieval and/or decryption of a data set processed by multiple node devices. A data set may be stored within a single data file for relatively long term storage (also commonly referred to as “persisted”) in a distributed manner among one or more storage devices. The data of the data set may be divided into multiple data blocks and/or data sub-blocks within the data file in a manner that correlates to the manner in which portions of the data set are distributed among multiple node devices during processing. Additionally, where encryption is to be used, each data block and each block into which the map may be divided may be separately encrypted before storage within the data file. The data file may include a map of the manner in which the data blocks and/or data sub-blocks are organized within the single data file, including the quantity, size(s) and/or location(s) within the data file. Also, where encryption is to be used, the map may also include separate data block encryption data for later use in separately decrypting each encrypted data block, as well as including separate map block encryption data for later use in separately decrypting each block into which the map, itself, may be divided, encrypted and stored within the data file. Where the map is divided into multiple separately stored encrypted blocks, each block of the map (except the last one) may contain the map block encryption data needed to decrypt a next one of the blocks of the map, such that the first encrypted block of the map must be decrypted to obtain the map block encryption data needed to decrypted the next encrypted block of the map, and so on in a chain of nested encryption. Thus, where the map is so encrypted, decryption of a particular encrypted data block of the data set may necessitate the decryption of one or more encrypted blocks of the map to obtain the particular data block encryption data needed to decrypt the particular encrypted data block.

The one or more storage devices may employ any of a variety of file systems to store the data file, and the data file may include a file header providing indications of various characteristics of the data file relevant to that file system. It should be noted that the manner in which the data file is distributed among the one or more storage devices may be entirely unrelated to the manner in which the data of the data set is divided into data blocks, and may therefore be entirely unrelated to the manner in which the data of the data set of is distributed among multiple node devices. By way of example, the manner in which the data of the data set is divided into data blocks advantageously does not affect or preclude the distribution of the data file among multiple storage devices configured to cooperate to form a redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) to provide protection against loss of the data file and/or to provide faster access to the data file. However, there may be situations in which the one or more storage devices may impose various requirements on the size of each unit of data and/or the quantity of units of data that may be transmitted to the one or more storage devices as part of storing the data set as the data file. In response, the multiple node devices may cooperate to combine and/or split data blocks to form units of data that are to be transmitted to the one or more storage devices that meet such requirements.

The data within the data set may be organized in any of a variety of ways (e.g., rows and columns, columnar, one or more hypercubes, linked list, tree, graph, etc.) with any of a variety of indexing mechanisms that may employ any of a variety of labeling schemes. To enable access to and use of the data, the data set may include metadata that is descriptive of such aspects of the manner in which the data of the data set is so organized. In some embodiments, the data within the data set may be organized into multiple partitions in which the data within each partition is required be processed all together as a single atomic unit. Therefore, if the data set is partitioned, the data blocks, and the one or more data sub-blocks into which each data block may be divided, may be at least partially defined by the manner in which data is organized into partitions. The metadata and/or the map may include an indication of whether the data of the data set is partitioned, and if so, the metadata may describe various aspects of the partitioning. Partitioning of the data within a data set may aid in simplifying and/or optimizing the processing of the data set in a distributed multi-node computational environment, by serving as a mechanism by which logically-related data of the data set are physically grouped together for processing on the same node device. Co-locating all data of a partition on the same node device may eliminate the need for time-consuming and/or resource-consuming inter-node data shuffling as computations are done on the partition data as a whole within a single node device. Furthermore, a straightforward scheme that may be used to locate the specific node device containing the partition which will be explained in greater detail herein. As will be explained in greater detail, in embodiments where the encryption is to be used, the manner in which the data set is encrypted, stored, retrieved and/or decrypted may be at least partially dependent on whether the data of the data set is partitioned.

In embodiments in which a grid of multiple node devices are employed to process the data set, and in which each of the node devices is capable of directly exchanging data with storage devices, the actions taken by each of the multiple node devices to store and retrieve data of the data set may be coordinated by a control device. In some embodiments, the control device may be separate and distinct from all of the node devices. In other embodiments, such a coordinating function of the control device may be performed by one of the multiple node devices (e.g., on a separate execution thread, by a separate processor core, within a separate virtual machine, etc.). Thus, in storing or retrieving the data set, the control device and each node device of the multiple node devices may directly access the single data file in which the data set is stored. More specifically, the control device may directly store or retrieve the metadata and the map, while each of the node devices may directly store or retrieve one or more different data blocks. At least the accesses made by the node devices to store or retrieve data blocks may be performed at least partially in parallel. The control device may provide each of the node devices with one or more pointers to locations within the data file at which the different data blocks may be stored or retrieved in the form of offsets relative to a designated starting location of the data file (e.g., offsets from the first byte of the data file or from the first byte of a payload portion of the data file). Through such use of pointers, the need for coordination between the node devices and the control device is greatly minimized Each of the node devices is thereby able to separately act to store and retrieve one or more data blocks without the need to synchronize the timing of such actions with other node devices and/or with the control device. In some embodiments, the control device may store or retrieve the metadata and/or the map at least partially in parallel with the storage or retrieval, respectively, of data blocks performed by one or more of the multiple node devices.

In other embodiments that also include the grid of multiple node devices to process the data set, but in which the node devices are not capable of directly exchanging data with the storage devices (or are not permitted to do so), the storage and retrieval of the data of the data set may be performed through the control device. Stated differently, the data of the data set may be relayed between the multiple node devices and the storage devices through the control device.

Regardless of whether the storage and/or retrieval of data blocks is performed directly by the node devices or relayed through a control device, in embodiments in which encryption is to be used, the encryption of data blocks for storage and/or the decryption of retrieved data blocks may also be performed in a distributed manner by the node devices. More specifically, as part of encrypting data blocks for storage, the node devices may provide separate data block encryption data for each data block to the control device for inclusion by the control device in the map prior to the map also being encrypted. Correspondingly, as part of retrieving data blocks from storage, the control device may provide the separate data block encryption data for each data block that is retrieved by the control device from the map to the node devices, following decryption of the map, to enable the decryption of data blocks by the node devices.

Still other embodiments may not include a grid of node devices, and instead, may include just the control device to process the data set, as well as to directly exchange data with the storage devices to directly perform storage and retrieval of the data set. In such embodiments, and where encryption is to be used, it may be the control device that encrypts all of the data blocks in preparation for the control device storing all of the data blocks. Correspondingly, in such embodiments, following retrieval of the all of the data blocks from storage by the control device, it may be the control device that decrypts all of the retrieved data blocks.

In embodiments in which the data of the data set is not partitioned, the map may include indications of the size of each encrypted data block and/or how many encrypted data blocks are used to store the data of the data set, as well as data block encryption data for each encrypted data block (where encryption is to be used). To reduce storage requirements for the map, itself, the map may include a table or similar data structure of multiple entries in which each entry may correspond to a single data block and include a data block size, as well as data block encryption data for its corresponding data block where encryption is to be used. In embodiments in which the data of the data set is partitioned, each entry may additionally indicate a size and a hashed identifier for each of the one or more data sub-blocks within each data block. As will be explained in greater detail, each partition may have a unique partition label that may be described in the metadata and/or may be included with the data belonging to that partition, and a hash may be taken of each such partition label to generate a corresponding hashed identifier. Whether the map is stored within a single block at a single location in the data file or in multiple blocks distributed across multiple locations within the data file may depend on the storage requirements of the map, which may depend on the total quantity and size of entries required for all of the encrypted data blocks.

In storing the data set within the data file in embodiments in which there are multiple node devices that are capable of directly exchanging data with storage devices (and are permitted to do so), and in which the data of the data set is not partitioned, each of the node devices may independently encrypt the one or more data blocks that it has in preparation for storage, if encryption is to be used. Also, for each data block that a node device is to store (whether encrypted, or not), the node device may transmit a request to the control device for a pointer to a location within the data file at which to store that data block. Each such request may include an indication of the size of the data block that the requesting node device is to store. Also, in embodiments where encryption is to be used, each such request may additionally include the data block encryption data generated and used by the requesting node in encrypting the data block. The specification of the size of the data block to be stored in each request enables the control device to derive the location within the data file to specify in the next pointer that the control device provides in response to the next request for a pointer from another node device. The control device may generate a map entry in the map for each data block for which a pointer is requested, and may store the specified size and data block encryption data (where encryption is to be used) for that data block in that map entry.

Each node device that so requests a pointer, upon being provided with the requested pointer, may employ the pointer to, itself, store the data block for which the pointer was requested at the location pointed to by the pointer in the data file. Such requesting and provision of pointers at which to store data blocks within the data file may continue until there are no more data blocks of the data set to be stored by any of the node devices for which a pointer has not been requested. In some embodiments, each of the node devices may transmit an indication to the control device of having no more data blocks of the data set to request pointers for. However, in other embodiments in which each of the node devices is required to request only a single pointer for all data that is to be stored by that node device, the control device may determine whether there are more data blocks for which pointers remain to be requested based on whether or not requests for pointers have been received from all of the node devices involved in processing the data set. In such other embodiments, a request for a single pointer for the storage of more than one data block by a node device may include a separate indication of size and/or separate data block encryption data for each of the more than one data blocks (in embodiments where encryption is to be used).

In some embodiments, the control device may store the map and/or the metadata of the data set within the data file in response to having determined that there are no more data blocks of the data set for which pointers need to be requested, and regardless of whether any or all of the data blocks have yet been stored. In embodiments where encryption is to be used, the encryption of the map, in addition to the data itself, may be deemed desirable to avoid providing clues as to the manner in which the data is organized as encrypted data blocks within the data file, which may aid in efforts to defeat the encryption of the data. Encryption of the metadata, in addition to the data itself, may be deemed desirable as the metadata may include indications of headings for rows, columns, etc., and/or may include indications of an indexing scheme by which the data is meant to be accessed (in its unencrypted form), which may aid in efforts to defeat the encryption of the data and/or may provide clues as to the content of the data. Thus, in such embodiments, neither the encryption nor the storage of the map and/or the metadata by the control device is thereby not dependent upon, or need to be synchronized with, the storage of any of the data blocks performed by the node devices. However, in other embodiments, the control device may delay encryption and/or storage of the map and/or metadata of the data set within the data file until indications have been received by the control device from all of the node devices that all of the data blocks have been successfully stored. This may be deemed desirable as a measure to address errors in transmission of one or more data blocks to the one or more storage devices via a network and/or errors in the storage of one or more data blocks by the one or more storage devices.

In embodiments in which encryption is to be used, regardless of when the control device stores the encrypted forms of the map and/or the metadata within the data file, the control device may first generate those encrypted forms by encrypting each block of the map using separate map block encryption data generated by the control device for each block of the map, and by encrypting the metadata using metadata block encryption data generated by the control device for the metadata. The control device may store the metadata block encryption data employed in encrypting the metadata within the first or only block of the map prior to the encryption of that block of the map. The control device may also store the map block encryption data employed in encrypting the first or only block of the map in unencrypted form within the data file at a predetermined offset from the start of the data file. Alternatively, the map block encryption data for the first or only block of the map may be subjected to an XOR operation to prior to being stored at the predetermined offset to provide at least the appearance of being part of the encrypted data within the data file, thereby effectively hiding it in plain sight to some extent within the data file. As previously discussed, where the map is divided into more than one block for storage within the data file, the map block encryption data used in encrypting each block of the map (except the first such block) may be stored within the preceding block of the map so as to be encrypted along with the portion of the map that is within the preceding block.

In embodiments in which encryption is to be used, any of a variety of types of encryption may be used by the control device to separately encrypt each block of the metadata and/or the map in preparation for storage. Also, any of a variety of types of encryption may be used by the control device and/or by the node devices (if present) to separately encrypt each data block of the data set for storage. As part of such separate encryption of a block of metadata, a block of the map or a data block, a different set of encryption data is used in which one or more pieces of encryption information may be deliberately different for each block that is encrypted. By way of example, while a single pass phrase may be used for the encryption of every block of metadata, every block of the map and every data block, a separate salt value may be randomly generated for each such block. Also, while the pass phrase may never be stored with or within the data file, the salt value generated for use in separately encrypting each block of the metadata, each block of the map and each data block may be stored within the data file as part of a corresponding piece of block encryption data to enable subsequent decryption of each such block following retrieval thereof. Other aspects of the encryption and decryption of each block will be explained in greater detail.

In embodiments in which the data of the data set is not partitioned, the lack of a requirement to keep any two or more specific portions of the data of the data set together for processing may result in the manner in which the data of the data set is divided into the data blocks being based solely on the manner in which the data of the data set was distributed among the multiple node devices at the time the data set was generated and/or most recently stored. More specifically, each data block stored within the data file is stored therein by only one node device such that no data block within the data file includes data stored therein by more than one node device. However, in some embodiments, a single node device may store more than one data block within the data file such that a single node may request more than one pointer from the control device. In some embodiments, this may arise as a result of a distribution of data and/or of processing of the data among multiple execution threads, multiple virtual machines and/or multiple processor cores within a single node device. Thus, for each portion of the data set within a single node device that has been fully processed within and/or by a separate corresponding execution thread, virtual machine and/or processor core, the node device may make a separate request for a separate pointer to a location within the data file at which a separate corresponding data block is to be stored. Alternatively, a single request for a single pointer at which to contiguously store all of the data blocks associated with a single node device may be requested, and the request may specify a size that is the sum of the sizes of all of those data blocks. This may be the case in embodiments in which each node device is required to make only one request for a pointer. Where encryption is to be used in such embodiments, there may still be separate data block encryption data included in such a single request for each of the data blocks. However, as an alternative to such a single request specifying a single size that is the sum of the sizes of all of the data blocks to be stored by a node device, the request alternatively may include specifications of a separate size for each data block. Further, in embodiments in which encryption is to be used, in addition to specifying a separate size for each of the data blocks, such a single request may also include separate data block encryption data for each of the data blocks.

In retrieving the data set from the data file in embodiments in which there are multiple node devices that are capable of directly exchanging data with storage devices (and are permitted to do so), and in which the data of the data set is not partitioned, the control device may retrieve indications of which node devices are available to perform processing with the data set. In some embodiments, the quantity of node devices that are available may vary with time based on any of a variety of factors, including demands for the processing resources of each of the node devices to perform other processing tasks (e.g., processing tasks having no connection to any processing of the data set), user sessions that indicate a specific node device count based on policy, known performance characteristics, service-level agreements, etc., instances of node devices having malfunctioned or being taken out of service for other reasons, etc. The control device may access the data file to retrieve the map and/or the metadata of the data set, and may relay an indication of a task to be performed and/or the metadata to each of the available ones of the multiple node devices. In so doing, in embodiments where the map and/or the metadata were stored in encrypted form, the control device may retrieve corresponding pieces of block encryption data needed to decrypt the first or only block of the map from a pre-selected location within the data file. The control device may then use such retrieved pieces of block encryption data to decrypt the first or only block of the map. In decrypting each of the one or more blocks of the map, the control device may retrieve the map block encryption data for each map block therefrom. Also, in decrypting the first or only block of the map, the control device may retrieve the metadata block encryption data therefrom. Following and/or during such decryption, the control device may then employ the information concerning each encrypted data block within the map to derive a distribution of the data blocks among the available node devices. The control device may employ any of a variety of techniques to derive a distribution of the data blocks among the available ones of the node devices, from simpler round robin techniques to any of a variety of data size balancing techniques.

In effecting this distribution of the data blocks, for each data block that the control device assigns to a node device, the control device may transmit a pointer to the location of the data block within the data file to the node device, along with an indication of the size of the encrypted data block, as well as the data block encryption data needed to decrypt the data block in embodiments where the data block was stored in encrypted form. For each such combination of pointer, size and/or data block encryption data received by a node device, the node device may employ the pointer to access and retrieve the corresponding data block from within the data file, starting at the location pointed to by the pointer and ceasing when the amount of data of the data block indicated by the size has been retrieved. In some embodiments, each node device may transmit an indication to the control device of having completed each such retrieval of a data block. As each node device to which the retrieval of one or more data blocks has been assigned completes the retrieval of the assigned one or more encrypted data blocks, the node device may begin the separate decryption of each such retrieved data block (if they were stored in encrypted form such that decryption is needed), and may then begin performing the assigned processing tasks therewith. Again, through such use of pointers, the need for coordination among the node devices and/or between the node devices and the control device is greatly minimized More specifically, there may be no synchronization of when each node begins performing processing tasks with the data of the one or more data blocks assigned to it, such that each node may immediately begin such processing upon retrieving and decrypting (if decryption is needed) at least a portion of at least one data block. Also again, where encryption was used in storing the data blocks, such distribution of data block encryption data to the node devices may enable the decryption of the data blocks to be performed in a distributed manner and at least partially in parallel by the node devices.

Again, in other embodiments that also include the grid of multiple node devices to process the data set, but in which the node devices are not capable of directly exchanging data with the storage devices (or are not permitted to), the retrieval of the data set may entail relaying the data blocks between the storage devices and the node devices through the control device. Also again, still other embodiments are possible that may not include a grid of node devices, and instead, may include just the control device to process the data set, as well as to directly exchange data with the storage devices to directly retrieve the data set. In such embodiments where the data blocks were stored in encrypted form, it may the control device that decrypts all of the retrieved encrypted data blocks.

Various aspects of storing the data set within the data file in embodiments in which the data of the data set is partitioned may differ from storing the data set in embodiments in which the data of the data set is not partitioned. Each of the node devices may transmit a request to the control device for a pointer to a location within the data file at which to store a single data block that includes one or more data sub-blocks. Each such request may include a data structure providing indications of the quantity of data sub-blocks, the size of each data sub-block and/or the hashed identifier of each data sub-block. Each such request may also include the data block encryption data used by the node device in encrypting the encrypted data block in embodiments where encryption is to be used. The specifications of the quantity of data sub-blocks within each data block and the size of each data sub-block enables the control device to derive the location within the data file to specify in the next pointer that the control device provides in response to the next request for a pointer from this same node device or from another node device. The control device may also employ such information, as well as the hashed identifiers and the data block encryption data (where encryption is to be used), in adding an entry for the data block that includes indications of the one or more data sub-blocks therein.

Each node device that so requests a pointer, upon being provided with the requested pointer, may employ the pointer to, itself, store the data block for which the pointer was requested at the location pointed to by the pointer in the data file (either in encrypted or non-encrypted form). As each node device receives a pointer for every data block that it is to store, each node device may transmit an indication to the control device of having no more data blocks to request pointers for. However, as previously discussed, in embodiments in which each of the node devices is required to request only a single pointer for all data that is to be stored by that node device, the control device may determine whether there are more data blocks for which pointers remain to be requested based on whether or not requests for pointers have been received from all of the node devices involved in processing the data set.

In response to there being no more data blocks of the data set for which any of the node devices need to be provided with a pointer, the control device may proceed with storing the map, the metadata of the data set and/or a data header within the data file (either in encrypted or non-encrypted form) without regard as to whether any or all of the data blocks have yet been stored. Alternatively, it may be deemed desirable for the control device to delay storage of the map, the metadata and/or the data header as a measure to address errors in transmission of one or more data blocks to the one or more storage devices via a network and/or errors in storage of one or more data blocks by the one or more storage devices. The data header may include an indication of how many node devices were involved in generating the data set and/or in storing the data set following its generation.

In embodiments in which the map and/or the metadata are to be stored in encrypted form, the control device may first generate those encrypted forms by encrypting each block of the map using separate map block encryption data generated by the control device for each block of the map, and by encrypting the metadata using metadata block encryption data generated by the control device for the metadata. The control device may store the metadata block encryption data within the first or only block of the map, and may store the map block encryption data employed in encrypting the first or only block of the map within the data file at one or more predetermined offsets from the start of the data file. The map block encryption data employed in encrypting the first or only block of the map may first be subjected to an XOR operation to provide at least the appearance of being part of the encrypted data within the data file, thereby effectively hiding it in plain sight to some extent within the data file. As previously discussed, where the map is divided into more than one block within the data file, the map block encryption data used in encrypting each (except the first such block) may be stored within the preceding block so as to be encrypted along with the portion of the map that is within the preceding block.

As previously discussed, in embodiments that include the grid of node devices and in which the data of the data set is partitioned, all of the data within each partition may be required to be processed together within a single node device, and not distributed among multiple node devices. However, a single node device may perform processing operations involving the data of more than one partition. As also previously discussed, all of the data within each partition must be stored together within a single data block within the data file, and not distributed among multiple data blocks within the data file. However, within each data block, the data of a single partition may be divided into multiple data sub-blocks, and a single data block may include data sub-blocks of the data of more than one partition. The hashed identifiers associated with each data sub-block by the map may be employed by the control device to distinguish between the multiple partitions to which the data within each data sub-block belongs.

Various aspects of retrieving the data set from the data file in embodiments in which the data of the data set is partitioned may differ from retrieving the data set in embodiments in which the data of the data set is not partitioned. The control device may retrieve indications of which node devices are available to perform processing on the data set. Again, in some embodiments, the quantity of available node devices may vary over time. The control device may access the data file to retrieve the map, the metadata of the data set and/or the data header, and may relay an indication of a task to be performed and/or the metadata to each of the available ones of the multiple node devices. In so doing in embodiments in which the map block and/or the metadata was stored in encrypted form, the control device may retrieve the map block encryption data needed to decrypt the first or only block of the map at the pre-selected offset from the start of the data file. The control device may then use such retrieved map block encryption data to decrypt the at least the first or only block of the map. In decrypting each of the one or more blocks of the map, the control device may retrieve the map block encryption data for each data block therefrom. Also, in decrypting the first or only block of the map, the control device may retrieve the metadata block encryption data therefrom. Regardless of whether decryption of the map and/or the metadata was needed, the control device may then employ a combination of the hashed identifiers associated with the data sub-blocks, the quantity of partitions into which the data set is divided, the quantity of node devices involved in generating and/or in most recently storing the data set within the data file, and the quantity of node devices that are currently available in deriving a distribution of the data blocks and/or data sub-blocks within the data blocks among the currently available node devices.

More specifically, the control device may compare the quantity of node devices involved in the most recent storage of the data set within the data file to the quantity of currently available node devices. If these two quantities of node devices match, then the control device may distribute the encrypted data blocks among the currently available node devices in a manner that recreates the distribution of partitions among node devices that existed at the time the data set was most recently stored within the data file. To effect this distribution of partitions among the currently available node devices, the control device may provide each currently available node device with at least one pointer to a location within the data file from which the node device may retrieve a data block and an indication of the size of the data block, as well as the data block encryption data needed to decrypt the data block in embodiments where the data block was stored in encrypted form. Thus, distribution of the pointers, and accordingly, of the data of the data set, is based on the data blocks within the data file, thereby avoiding the time and/or data transmission overhead of distributing what may be a considerably greater quantity of pointers to individual data sub-blocks.

However, if the quantity of node devices involved in at least storing the data set within the data file does not match the quantity of currently available node devices, then the control device may derive a distribution of the data sub-blocks among the currently available node devices using any of a variety of techniques, while ensuring that there are no instances in which the data of any partition is distributed among multiple node devices. In so doing, the control device may employ the hashed identifier associated by the map with each individual data sub-block. By way of example, the control device may divide each of the hashed identifiers by the quantity of currently available node devices to derive the modulo value from each such division. The control device may then employ the modulo value as the indicator of which node device to distribute each data sub-block to, and thereby determine which node device to distribute the entirety of each partition to.

However, as previously discussed in regard to embodiments in which the data blocks were stored in encrypted form, while the map may include separate indications of a size and a hashed identifier for each data sub-block in embodiments in which the data set is partitioned, the fact that encryption is performed per data block, and not per data sub-block, results in the need for each encrypted data block to be decrypted as a whole, such that separate decryption of each of the data sub-blocks that may make up any of the encrypted data blocks is not possible. In situations where the map indicates that all of the data sub-blocks within an encrypted data block share the same hashed identifier, and therefore all belong to the same partition, the entirety of such an encrypted data block is able to be distributed to a single node device. The control device may provide that single node device with a pointer to a location within the data file from which to retrieve the entirety of the encrypted data block, along with an indication of the sizes and hashed identifiers of all of the data sub-blocks therein and the data block encryption data for the encrypted data block. That single node device may then employ the pointer to access and retrieve the encrypted data block from within the data file, starting at the location pointed to by the pointer and ceasing when the amount of data of the encrypted data block retrieved by that single node device matches the size of the encrypted data block. That single node device may then employ the data block encryption data to decrypt the entirety of the encrypted data block.

However, in situations where the map indicates that an encrypted data block includes data sub-blocks that have different hashed identifiers such that different ones of the data sub-blocks belong to different partitions, and are therefore to be assigned to different node devices, the control device may make select one of those different node devices to be the one to perform the decryption of the entirety of the encrypted data block. In some embodiments, such a selection may be based on the relative amounts of the data within the encrypted data block that are to be distributed to each of those different node devices for processing. Thus, the control device may select the one of those different node devices to which the largest portion of the data within the encrypted data block is to be distributed as the single node device to perform the decryption of the encrypted data block, and may therefore provide that single node device with a pointer to a location within the data file from which to retrieve the entirety of the encrypted data block, along with an indication of the sizes and hashed identifiers of all of the data sub-blocks therein and the data block encryption data for the encrypted data block. That single node device may employ the pointer to access and retrieve the encrypted data block from within the data file, starting at the location pointed to by the pointer and ceasing when the amount of data of the encrypted data block retrieved by that single node device matches the sum of the sizes of all of the data sub-blocks therein. That single node device may then employ the data block encryption data to decrypt the entirety of the encrypted data block. That single node device may then employ the hashed identifiers of the data sub-blocks to determine which data sub-block(s) are meant to be distributed to it, and which data sub-block(s) are meant to be distributed to other node device(s), and may relay the data sub-block(s) meant to be distributed to other node device(s) to those other node device(s).

In some embodiments, the one or more storage devices may enforce various restrictions on the manner in which the data set, as well as such accompanying pieces of information as the map and/or the metadata, may be transmitted to the one or more storage devices for storage therein. By way of example, an upper limit may be placed on the quantity of distinct units of data into which the data set may be broken up for transmission to the one or more storage devices. Also by way of example, a minimum size threshold and/or a maximum size threshold may be placed on each distinct unit that is transmitted to the one or more storage devices. In some of such embodiments, an exception to such a minimum size threshold may be permitted so that a single one of the units of data may be of a size that is smaller than the minimum size threshold so as to avoid creating a need to pad any of the units of data.

The imposition of such restrictions may be deemed desirable to increase the efficiency with which the storage of data by the one or more storage devices is performed, and/or to increase the efficiency by which additional storage capacity may be added. By way of example, it may be that various antivirus and/or other scanning routines are employed by the one or more storage devices and/or by a gateway device operated by a corporate, educational and/or governmental entity that also operates the one or more storage devices. Where such an entity operates a vast quantity of storage devices, the amount of incoming data to be stored therein may also be quite vast such that it may be deemed desirable to make the scanning of the incoming data for malware more efficient. Imposing such restrictions may be intended to force the incoming data to be provided in the form of units of data that all exhibit similar (and therefore, predictable) characteristics, regardless of its source, so that each of the units of data may be handled for purposes of such scanning in a substantially identical manner. Alternatively or additionally, such restrictions may be intended to force the incoming data to be provided in the form of units of data that are of a predictable range of sizes to ease the performance of routing of the data to various storage units and/or to ease the performance of calculations used to recurringly update a schedule of planned additions of capacity to such a vast quantity of storage devices.

However, while such restrictions may be imposed on data that is provided to the one or more storage devices to be stored therein, such restrictions may not be imposed on the manner in which data is retrieved from the one or more storage devices. This may be deemed desirable based on an expectation that accesses to retrieve data may typically be of a more random nature than would be encountered in the storage of data. By way of example, it may be deemed more likely that accesses to retrieve individual web pages of a large website or subparts of data from a large database would likely involve considerable “jumping around” that would not likely occur when a whole new version of the large website or of the large database is stored.

To meet such restrictions on the storage of the multiple data blocks of a data set, the control device and the multiple node devices with the data blocks of the data set to be stored may cooperate to group the data blocks to form segments of the data set that meet the restrictions such that the data set may be stored within the one or more storage devices by transmitting the segments thereto in at least a partially parallel manner. In the performance of such grouping, various ones of the node devices may exchange data blocks (in either encrypted or non-encrypted form) thereamong to cause a subset of the node devices to be provided with a sufficient quantity of data blocks as to be able to form segments that are large enough in size as to meet an imposed minimum size threshold. Also in performing such grouping, data blocks that are too large to fit within an imposed maximum size threshold may be divided into multiple segments that each do fit within that maximum size threshold. Still further, depending on whether the overall size of at least the map and the metadata combined is large enough in size to meet such an imposed minimum size threshold, the control device may provide the map and/or the metadata (in encrypted or non-encrypted form) to one of the node devices to be included within a segment along with one or more data blocks.

In some embodiments, it may be the control device that coordinates the cooperation among the control device and/or the multiple node devices to form the multiple segments to be transmitted to the one or more storage devices. Upon receiving indications that the node devices have completed one or more tasks that entail generating and/or updating a data set such that the node devices now have a data set that is to be stored within the one or more node devices, the control device may request indications from each node device of the total amount of data that each has. It should be noted that these total amounts of data that the control device requests from the node devices may not include the same information as the earlier-described requests made by the node devices to the control device for a pointer at which to store one or more data blocks. More specifically, the total amounts of data requested by the control device may not include separate sizes for each data block and/or each data sub-block that each node device has to store, may not include hash values for partitions, and may not include data block encryption data arising from the encryption of a data block. Such more detailed information may be provided at a later stage. Stated differently, the total amounts of data requested by the control device may simply be nothing more than the total amount of data that each node device has to be stored.

Upon receiving the indications of total amounts from the node devices, the control device may employ the total amounts to derive a set of block exchanges to be performed among the node devices to cause a subset of the node devices to each have a sufficient amount of the data to be stored as to enable each of the node devices within that subset to form one or more segments that fit within the minimum and/or maximum size thresholds, and/or to fit within the maximum quantity of segments that can be transmitted to the one or more storage devices. Again, it may be that one of the segments is permitted to be of a size that falls below the minimum size threshold. Thus, stated differently, the control device derives a set of block exchanges to be performed among the node devices to enable the data set to be stored within the one or more storage devices in a manner that uses the restrictions imposed by the one or more storage devices as a set of rules to be complied with.

After deriving the set of block exchanges to be performed among the node devices, the control device may transmit instructions to at least a subset of the node devices that are to be involved in those block exchanges. More precisely, in some embodiments, the control device may transmit instructions to each node device that is to provide one or more data blocks (designated a “source” node device) to another node device (designated a “target” node device) to each proceed with transmitting its one or more data blocks. Alternatively or additionally, the control device may transmit instructions to each of the target node devices that are to receive one or more data blocks from one or more other source node devices to each proceed with coordinating with those other source node device(s) to cause the receipt of those one or more data blocks therefrom. It should be noted that, in embodiments in which the data blocks are to be stored in encrypted form, the node devices may perform the encryption of the data blocks at least partially in parallel prior to the performances of such block exchanges thereamong. As each of such block exchanges of one or more data blocks is completed, the control device may receive an indication of such completion from the source and/or target node device(s) involved in each such block exchange. It should be noted that, along with each data block that is so exchanged, various pieces of information about that data block may also be exchanged with it, including the detailed information that was earlier described as not being provided with the total amounts of data that were provided by the node devices to the control device to enable the derivation of such a set of block exchanges.

It should be noted that, in support of deriving and/or coordinating such a set of transfers among the node devices, the control device may assign a unique node device identifier to each node device, where together, the node device identifiers form an uninterrupted ascending or descending series of numerical values or an uninterrupted alphabetized series of text characters. By way of example, the node device identifiers may form an 0-based or 1-based uninterrupted ascending series of integer values (e.g., 0, 1, 2, and so on; or 1, 2, 3, and so on). With such node device identifies having been assigned, the derivation of the set of block exchanges may be based on deriving a set of transfers from lower-numbered node devices designated as source node devices to higher-numbered node devices designated as target node devices. Correspondingly, the instructions transmitted by the control device to the node devices to cause the performance of the set of block exchanges may rely on the node devices applying a similar rule of transfers from lower-numbered node devices to higher-numbered node devices in interpreting those instructions. The various transfers of blocks of data that make up the set of block exchanges may be performed at least partially in parallel. As will be explained in greater detail, such assignment and use of such an approach to ordering the node devices may be relied upon to define and maintain an ordering of the data blocks of the data set, and accordingly, an ordering among the segments by which the data blocks are transmitted to the one or more storage devices.

With the performances of the block exchanges having been completed, the control device may then transmit, to at least the subset of node devices that have the data blocks of the data set as a result of the set of block exchanges, a request for each of those node devices to provide more detailed information concerning the data blocks that each now has, and to do so in a manner that preserves the order among the node devices and among the data blocks as part of performing may be referred to as a “registration” of the data blocks. By way of example, the control device may query each of the node devices of at least such a subset, one device at a time and in the order defined among those node devices by their node device identifiers, to obtain information about the data blocks that each such node device has for storage.

The registration response from each node device may include the detailed information for each data block and/or data sub-block that was earlier described as not being included in the total amounts of data that were provided by the node devices prior to the set of block exchanges thereamong. Thus, the registration response from each node device may include the size of each data block for non-partitioned data, the size and hash value for each data sub-block for partitioned data, and/or data block encryption data in embodiments where the data block are to be encrypted for storage. As earlier described, where a node device received a data block as a target node device from another node device serving as a source node device during the set of block exchanges, that target node device may also receive such detailed information about that data block from that source node device.

Each node device that provides such detailed information to the control device may do so in an order that preserves the order among the data blocks that was defined, at least in part, by the order defined by the node device identifiers earlier assigned to each of the node devices. More specifically, where a target node device received one or more data blocks from a source node device with a lower-ordered node-device identifier than the target node device, that target node device may provide such detailed information that it also received from the source node device concerning those received data blocks to the control device before providing such detailed information concerning the data blocks already in the possession of that target node device before the set of block exchanges. By so doing, the target node device aids in preserving the order among all of the data blocks that the target node device now has. The control device may use such an in-order provision of information concerning each of the data blocks as an aid in generating the map of the data blocks of the data set with its per-block entries in an order that follows the order of the data blocks. Alternatively, various mechanisms other than an ordered timing of the transmission of such detailed information to the control device may be used to preserve the ordering, but enable the transmissions of such detailed information to control device by the node devices to occur at least partially in parallel.

After the control device has completed generating the map based on the registration of data blocks, the control device may determine whether the map is in need of being divided into a map base and multiple map extensions for storage, as has been previously discussed. In so doing, the control device may also determine the total size of the map and the metadata together, and then determine whether that total size is large enough to at least meet the minimum size threshold that may be imposed by the one or more storage devices. If the total size is not large enough, then the control device may transmit the combination of the map and the metadata to one of the subset of node devices that has one or more data blocks to enable the map and the metadata to be included with one or more data blocks in a segment. In so transmitting the map and the metadata, the control device may act select the node device with the lowest order node device identifier from among the subset of node devices that have one or more data blocks following the set of block exchanges. This may be done to maintain an ordering of the contents of the stored data file of the data set in which at least an initial portion of the map and the metadata precede all of the data blocks therein. However, if the total size of the map and the metadata combined is large enough to at least meet the minimum size threshold, then the control device may combine the map and the metadata into a separate segment in which the map and the metadata are not combined with any data block. It should be noted that, in embodiments in which the map and/or the metadata are to be stored in encrypted form, the control device may perform such encryption prior to transmitting the map and/or the metadata to a node device or combining them to form a segment.

With the set of block exchanges having been performed such that each of the node devices that now have one or more data blocks is able to form segments therefrom, and with the map and metadata having been transmitted to a node device to be included in one of those segments or combined into a separate segment by the control device, the control device and/or the node devices may proceed with transmitting the segments to the one or more storage devices at least partially in parallel. In some embodiments, each of the segments may be transmitted to the one or more storage devices with instructions to store it at a location specified by a pointer in a manner similarly to what has been previously described for the storage of individual data blocks at locations specified with pointers. These transfers of the segments to the one or more storage devices may be performed partially in parallel.

However, in other embodiments, the segments may be transmitted to the one or more storage devices, at least partially in parallel, and without such a specification of a particular location at which to be stored. Instead, the one or more storage devices may respond to the receipt of each segment by transmitting a segment identifier back to the particular node device from which the segment was received. Where the control device transmits one or more segments formed from the map and/or the metadata to the one or more storage devices, the control device may similarly receive a segment identifier for each segment it so transmits. Each of the node devices may relay the one or more segment identifiers that it receives, and may do so in a manner that indicates the order among the segments to which the segment identifiers correspond. The control device may assemble the segment identifiers into a data structure (e.g., an array, a vector, etc.) that serves to provide an indication of the order of the segments to which the segment identifiers correspond, and may then transmit that data structure to the one or more storage devices so as to convey that indication of an order thereto. As will be explained in greater detail, such a data structure setting forth the order among the segments provides the one or more control devices the information needed to put the map, the metadata and the data blocks into their proper order within the payload section of the data file in preparation for future retrieval of the data set therefrom.

With general reference to notations and nomenclature used herein, portions of the detailed description that follows may be presented in terms of program procedures executed by a processor of a machine or of multiple networked machines. These procedural descriptions and representations are used by those skilled in the art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. A procedure is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to a desired result. These operations are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical, magnetic or optical communications capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It proves convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to what is communicated as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like. It should be noted, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to those quantities.

Further, these manipulations are often referred to in terms, such as adding or comparing, which are commonly associated with mental operations performed by a human operator. However, no such capability of a human operator is necessary, or desirable in most cases, in any of the operations described herein that form part of one or more embodiments. Rather, these operations are machine operations. Useful machines for performing operations of various embodiments include machines selectively activated or configured by a routine stored within that is written in accordance with the teachings herein, and/or include apparatus specially constructed for the required purpose. Various embodiments also relate to apparatus or systems for performing these operations. These apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purpose or may include a general purpose computer. The required structure for a variety of these machines will appear from the description given.

Reference is now made to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding thereof. It may be evident, however, that the novel embodiments can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate a description thereof. The intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives within the scope of the claims.

Systems depicted in some of the figures may be provided in various configurations. In some embodiments, the systems may be configured as a distributed system where one or more components of the system are distributed across one or more networks in a cloud computing system and/or a fog computing system.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram that provides an illustration of the hardware components of a data transmission network 100, according to embodiments of the present technology. Data transmission network 100 is a specialized computer system that may be used for processing large amounts of data where a large number of computer processing cycles are required.

Data transmission network 100 may also include computing environment 114. Computing environment 114 may be a specialized computer or other machine that processes the data received within the data transmission network 100. Data transmission network 100 also includes one or more network devices 102. Network devices 102 may include client devices that attempt to communicate with computing environment 114. For example, network devices 102 may send data to the computing environment 114 to be processed, may send signals to the computing environment 114 to control different aspects of the computing environment or the data it is processing, among other reasons. Network devices 102 may interact with the computing environment 114 through a number of ways, such as, for example, over one or more networks 108. As shown in FIG. 1, computing environment 114 may include one or more other systems. For example, computing environment 114 may include a database system 118 and/or a communications grid 120.

In other embodiments, network devices may provide a large amount of data, either all at once or streaming over a period of time (e.g., using event stream processing (ESP), described further with respect to FIGS. 8-10), to the computing environment 114 via networks 108. For example, network devices 102 may include network computers, sensors, databases, or other devices that may transmit or otherwise provide data to computing environment 114. For example, network devices may include local area network devices, such as routers, hubs, switches, or other computer networking devices. These devices may provide a variety of stored or generated data, such as network data or data specific to the network devices themselves. Network devices may also include sensors that monitor their environment or other devices to collect data regarding that environment or those devices, and such network devices may provide data they collect over time. Network devices may also include devices within the internet of things, such as devices within a home automation network. Some of these devices may be referred to as edge devices, and may involve edge computing circuitry. Data may be transmitted by network devices directly to computing environment 114 or to network-attached data stores, such as network-attached data stores 110 for storage so that the data may be retrieved later by the computing environment 114 or other portions of data transmission network 100.

Data transmission network 100 may also include one or more network-attached data stores 110. Network-attached data stores 110 are used to store data to be processed by the computing environment 114 as well as any intermediate or final data generated by the computing system in non-volatile memory. However in certain embodiments, the configuration of the computing environment 114 allows its operations to be performed such that intermediate and final data results can be stored solely in volatile memory (e.g., RAM), without a requirement that intermediate or final data results be stored to non-volatile types of memory (e.g., disk). This can be useful in certain situations, such as when the computing environment 114 receives ad hoc queries from a user and when responses, which are generated by processing large amounts of data, need to be generated on-the-fly. In this non-limiting situation, the computing environment 114 may be configured to retain the processed information within memory so that responses can be generated for the user at different levels of detail as well as allow a user to interactively query against this information.

Network-attached data stores may store a variety of different types of data organized in a variety of different ways and from a variety of different sources. For example, network-attached data storage may include storage other than primary storage located within computing environment 114 that is directly accessible by processors located therein. Network-attached data storage may include secondary, tertiary or auxiliary storage, such as large hard drives, servers, virtual memory, among other types. Storage devices may include portable or non-portable storage devices, optical storage devices, and various other mediums capable of storing, containing data. A machine-readable storage medium or computer-readable storage medium may include a non-transitory medium in which data can be stored and that does not include carrier waves and/or transitory electronic signals. Examples of a non-transitory medium may include, for example, a magnetic disk or tape, optical storage media such as compact disk or digital versatile disk, flash memory, memory or memory devices. A computer-program product may include code and/or machine-executable instructions that may represent a procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a software package, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures, or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, among others. Furthermore, the data stores may hold a variety of different types of data. For example, network-attached data stores 110 may hold unstructured (e.g., raw) data, such as manufacturing data (e.g., a database containing records identifying products being manufactured with parameter data for each product, such as colors and models) or product sales databases (e.g., a database containing individual data records identifying details of individual product sales).

The unstructured data may be presented to the computing environment 114 in different forms such as a flat file or a conglomerate of data records, and may have data values and accompanying time stamps. The computing environment 114 may be used to analyze the unstructured data in a variety of ways to determine the best way to structure (e.g., hierarchically) that data, such that the structured data is tailored to a type of further analysis that a user wishes to perform on the data. For example, after being processed, the unstructured time stamped data may be aggregated by time (e.g., into daily time period units) to generate time series data and/or structured hierarchically according to one or more dimensions (e.g., parameters, attributes, and/or variables). For example, data may be stored in a hierarchical data structure, such as a ROLAP OR MOLAP database, or may be stored in another tabular form, such as in a flat-hierarchy form.

Data transmission network 100 may also include one or more server farms 106. Computing environment 114 may route select communications or data to the one or more sever farms 106 or one or more servers within the server farms. Server farms 106 can be configured to provide information in a predetermined manner. For example, server farms 106 may access data to transmit in response to a communication. Server farms 106 may be separately housed from each other device within data transmission network 100, such as computing environment 114, and/or may be part of a device or system.

Server farms 106 may host a variety of different types of data processing as part of data transmission network 100. Server farms 106 may receive a variety of different data from network devices, from computing environment 114, from cloud network 116, or from other sources. The data may have been obtained or collected from one or more sensors, as inputs from a control database, or may have been received as inputs from an external system or device. Server farms 106 may assist in processing the data by turning raw data into processed data based on one or more rules implemented by the server farms. For example, sensor data may be analyzed to determine changes in an environment over time or in real-time.

Data transmission network 100 may also include one or more cloud networks 116. Cloud network 116 may include a cloud infrastructure system that provides cloud services. In certain embodiments, services provided by the cloud network 116 may include a host of services that are made available to users of the cloud infrastructure system on demand Cloud network 116 is shown in FIG. 1 as being connected to computing environment 114 (and therefore having computing environment 114 as its client or user), but cloud network 116 may be connected to or utilized by any of the devices in FIG. 1. Services provided by the cloud network can dynamically scale to meet the needs of its users. The cloud network 116 may include one or more computers, servers, and/or systems. In some embodiments, the computers, servers, and/or systems that make up the cloud network 116 are different from the user's own on-premises computers, servers, and/or systems. For example, the cloud network 116 may host an application, and a user may, via a communication network such as the Internet, on demand, order and use the application.

While each device, server and system in FIG. 1 is shown as a single device, it will be appreciated that multiple devices may instead be used. For example, a set of network devices can be used to transmit various communications from a single user, or remote server 140 may include a server stack. As another example, data may be processed as part of computing environment 114.

Each communication within data transmission network 100 (e.g., between client devices, between servers 106 and computing environment 114 or between a server and a device) may occur over one or more networks 108. Networks 108 may include one or more of a variety of different types of networks, including a wireless network, a wired network, or a combination of a wired and wireless network. Examples of suitable networks include the Internet, a personal area network, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), or a wireless local area network (WLAN). A wireless network may include a wireless interface or combination of wireless interfaces. As an example, a network in the one or more networks 108 may include a short-range communication channel, such as a BLUETOOTH® communication channel or a BLUETOOTH® Low Energy communication channel. A wired network may include a wired interface. The wired and/or wireless networks may be implemented using routers, access points, bridges, gateways, or the like, to connect devices in the network 114, as will be further described with respect to FIG. 2. The one or more networks 108 can be incorporated entirely within or can include an intranet, an extranet, or a combination thereof. In one embodiment, communications between two or more systems and/or devices can be achieved by a secure communications protocol, such as secure sockets layer (SSL) or transport layer security (TLS). In addition, data and/or transactional details may be encrypted.

Some aspects may utilize the Internet of Things (IoT), where things (e.g., machines, devices, phones, sensors) can be connected to networks and the data from these things can be collected and processed within the things and/or external to the things. For example, the IoT can include sensors in many different devices, and high value analytics can be applied to identify hidden relationships and drive increased efficiencies. This can apply to both big data analytics and real-time (e.g., ESP) analytics. This will be described further below with respect to FIG. 2.

As noted, computing environment 114 may include a communications grid 120 and a transmission network database system 118. Communications grid 120 may be a grid-based computing system for processing large amounts of data. The transmission network database system 118 may be for managing, storing, and retrieving large amounts of data that are distributed to and stored in the one or more network-attached data stores 110 or other data stores that reside at different locations within the transmission network database system 118. The compute nodes in the grid-based computing system 120 and the transmission network database system 118 may share the same processor hardware, such as processors that are located within computing environment 114.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example network including an example set of devices communicating with each other over an exchange system and via a network, according to embodiments of the present technology. As noted, each communication within data transmission network 100 may occur over one or more networks. System 200 includes a network device 204 configured to communicate with a variety of types of client devices, for example client devices 230, over a variety of types of communication channels.

As shown in FIG. 2, network device 204 can transmit a communication over a network (e.g., a cellular network via a base station 210). The communication can be routed to another network device, such as network devices 205-209, via base station 210. The communication can also be routed to computing environment 214 via base station 210. For example, network device 204 may collect data either from its surrounding environment or from other network devices (such as network devices 205-209) and transmit that data to computing environment 214.

Although network devices 204-209 are shown in FIG. 2 as a mobile phone, laptop computer, tablet computer, temperature sensor, motion sensor, and audio sensor respectively, the network devices may be or include sensors that are sensitive to detecting aspects of their environment. For example, the network devices may include sensors such as water sensors, power sensors, electrical current sensors, chemical sensors, optical sensors, pressure sensors, geographic or position sensors (e.g., GPS), velocity sensors, acceleration sensors, flow rate sensors, among others. Examples of characteristics that may be sensed include force, torque, load, strain, position, temperature, air pressure, fluid flow, chemical properties, resistance, electromagnetic fields, radiation, irradiance, proximity, acoustics, moisture, distance, speed, vibrations, acceleration, electrical potential, electrical current, among others. The sensors may be mounted to various components used as part of a variety of different types of systems (e.g., an oil drilling operation). The network devices may detect and record data related to the environment that it monitors, and transmit that data to computing environment 214.

As noted, one type of system that may include various sensors that collect data to be processed and/or transmitted to a computing environment according to certain embodiments includes an oil drilling system. For example, the one or more drilling operation sensors may include surface sensors that measure a hook load, a fluid rate, a temperature and a density in and out of the wellbore, a standpipe pressure, a surface torque, a rotation speed of a drill pipe, a rate of penetration, a mechanical specific energy, etc. and downhole sensors that measure a rotation speed of a bit, fluid densities, downhole torque, downhole vibration (axial, tangential, lateral), a weight applied at a drill bit, an annular pressure, a differential pressure, an azimuth, an inclination, a dog leg severity, a measured depth, a vertical depth, a downhole temperature, etc. Besides the raw data collected directly by the sensors, other data may include parameters either developed by the sensors or assigned to the system by a client or other controlling device. For example, one or more drilling operation control parameters may control settings such as a mud motor speed to flow ratio, a bit diameter, a predicted formation top, seismic data, weather data, etc. Other data may be generated using physical models such as an earth model, a weather model, a seismic model, a bottom hole assembly model, a well plan model, an annular friction model, etc. In addition to sensor and control settings, predicted outputs, of for example, the rate of penetration, mechanical specific energy, hook load, flow in fluid rate, flow out fluid rate, pump pressure, surface torque, rotation speed of the drill pipe, annular pressure, annular friction pressure, annular temperature, equivalent circulating density, etc. may also be stored in the data warehouse.

In another example, another type of system that may include various sensors that collect data to be processed and/or transmitted to a computing environment according to certain embodiments includes a home automation or similar automated network in a different environment, such as an office space, school, public space, sports venue, or a variety of other locations. Network devices in such an automated network may include network devices that allow a user to access, control, and/or configure various home appliances located within the user's home (e.g., a television, radio, light, fan, humidifier, sensor, microwave, iron, and/or the like), or outside of the user's home (e.g., exterior motion sensors, exterior lighting, garage door openers, sprinkler systems, or the like). For example, network device 102 may include a home automation switch that may be coupled with a home appliance. In another embodiment, a network device can allow a user to access, control, and/or configure devices, such as office-related devices (e.g., copy machine, printer, or fax machine), audio and/or video related devices (e.g., a receiver, a speaker, a projector, a DVD player, or a television), media-playback devices (e.g., a compact disc player, a CD player, or the like), computing devices (e.g., a home computer, a laptop computer, a tablet, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a computing device, or a wearable device), lighting devices (e.g., a lamp or recessed lighting), devices associated with a security system, devices associated with an alarm system, devices that can be operated in an automobile (e.g., radio devices, navigation devices), and/or the like. Data may be collected from such various sensors in raw form, or data may be processed by the sensors to create parameters or other data either developed by the sensors based on the raw data or assigned to the system by a client or other controlling device.

In another example, another type of system that may include various sensors that collect data to be processed and/or transmitted to a computing environment according to certain embodiments includes a power or energy grid. A variety of different network devices may be included in an energy grid, such as various devices within one or more power plants, energy farms (e.g., wind farm, solar farm, among others) energy storage facilities, factories, homes and businesses of consumers, among others. One or more of such devices may include one or more sensors that detect energy gain or loss, electrical input or output or loss, and a variety of other efficiencies. These sensors may collect data to inform users of how the energy grid, and individual devices within the grid, may be functioning and how they may be made more efficient.

Network device sensors may also perform processing on data it collects before transmitting the data to the computing environment 114, or before deciding whether to transmit data to the computing environment 114. For example, network devices may determine whether data collected meets certain rules, for example by comparing data or values calculated from the data and comparing that data to one or more thresholds. The network device may use this data and/or comparisons to determine if the data should be transmitted to the computing environment 214 for further use or processing.

Computing environment 214 may include machines 220 and 240. Although computing environment 214 is shown in FIG. 2 as having two machines, 220 and 240, computing environment 214 may have only one machine or may have more than two machines. The machines that make up computing environment 214 may include specialized computers, servers, or other machines that are configured to individually and/or collectively process large amounts of data. The computing environment 214 may also include storage devices that include one or more databases of structured data, such as data organized in one or more hierarchies, or unstructured data. The databases may communicate with the processing devices within computing environment 214 to distribute data to them. Since network devices may transmit data to computing environment 214, that data may be received by the computing environment 214 and subsequently stored within those storage devices. Data used by computing environment 214 may also be stored in data stores 235, which may also be a part of or connected to computing environment 214.

Computing environment 214 can communicate with various devices via one or more routers 225 or other inter-network or intra-network connection components. For example, computing environment 214 may communicate with devices 230 via one or more routers 225. Computing environment 214 may collect, analyze and/or store data from or pertaining to communications, client device operations, client rules, and/or user-associated actions stored at one or more data stores 235. Such data may influence communication routing to the devices within computing environment 214, how data is stored or processed within computing environment 214, among other actions.

Notably, various other devices can further be used to influence communication routing and/or processing between devices within computing environment 214 and with devices outside of computing environment 214. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, computing environment 214 may include a web server 240. Thus, computing environment 214 can retrieve data of interest, such as client information (e.g., product information, client rules, etc.), technical product details, news, current or predicted weather, and so on.

In addition to computing environment 214 collecting data (e.g., as received from network devices, such as sensors, and client devices or other sources) to be processed as part of a big data analytics project, it may also receive data in real time as part of a streaming analytics environment. As noted, data may be collected using a variety of sources as communicated via different kinds of networks or locally. Such data may be received on a real-time streaming basis. For example, network devices may receive data periodically from network device sensors as the sensors continuously sense, monitor and track changes in their environments. Devices within computing environment 214 may also perform pre-analysis on data it receives to determine if the data received should be processed as part of an ongoing project. The data received and collected by computing environment 214, no matter what the source or method or timing of receipt, may be processed over a period of time for a client to determine results data based on the client's needs and rules.

FIG. 3 illustrates a representation of a conceptual model of a communications protocol system, according to embodiments of the present technology. More specifically, FIG. 3 identifies operation of a computing environment in an Open Systems Interaction model that corresponds to various connection components. The model 300 shows, for example, how a computing environment, such as computing environment 314 (or computing environment 214 in FIG. 2) may communicate with other devices in its network, and control how communications between the computing environment and other devices are executed and under what conditions.

The model can include layers 301-307. The layers are arranged in a stack. Each layer in the stack serves the layer one level higher than it (except for the application layer, which is the highest layer), and is served by the layer one level below it (except for the physical layer, which is the lowest layer). The physical layer is the lowest layer because it receives and transmits raw bites of data, and is the farthest layer from the user in a communications system. On the other hand, the application layer is the highest layer because it interacts directly with a software application.

As noted, the model includes a physical layer 301. Physical layer 301 represents physical communication, and can define parameters of that physical communication. For example, such physical communication may come in the form of electrical, optical, or electromagnetic signals. Physical layer 301 also defines protocols that may control communications within a data transmission network.

Link layer 302 defines links and mechanisms used to transmit (i.e., move) data across a network. The link layer 302 manages node-to-node communications, such as within a grid computing environment. Link layer 302 can detect and correct errors (e.g., transmission errors in the physical layer 301). Link layer 302 can also include a media access control (MAC) layer and logical link control (LLC) layer.

Network layer 303 defines the protocol for routing within a network. In other words, the network layer coordinates transferring data across nodes in a same network (e.g., such as a grid computing environment). Network layer 303 can also define the processes used to structure local addressing within the network.

Transport layer 304 can manage the transmission of data and the quality of the transmission and/or receipt of that data. Transport layer 304 can provide a protocol for transferring data, such as, for example, a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). Transport layer 304 can assemble and disassemble data frames for transmission. The transport layer can also detect transmission errors occurring in the layers below it.

Session layer 305 can establish, maintain, and manage communication connections between devices on a network. In other words, the session layer controls the dialogues or nature of communications between network devices on the network. The session layer may also establish checkpointing, adjournment, termination, and restart procedures.

Presentation layer 306 can provide translation for communications between the application and network layers. In other words, this layer may encrypt, decrypt and/or format data based on data types and/or encodings known to be accepted by an application or network layer.

Application layer 307 interacts directly with software applications and end users, and manages communications between them. Application layer 307 can identify destinations, local resource states or availability and/or communication content or formatting using the applications.

Intra-network connection components 321 and 322 are shown to operate in lower levels, such as physical layer 301 and link layer 302, respectively. For example, a hub can operate in the physical layer, a switch can operate in the link layer, and a router can operate in the network layer. Inter-network connection components 323 and 328 are shown to operate on higher levels, such as layers 303-307. For example, routers can operate in the network layer and network devices can operate in the transport, session, presentation, and application layers.

As noted, a computing environment 314 can interact with and/or operate on, in various embodiments, one, more, all or any of the various layers. For example, computing environment 314 can interact with a hub (e.g., via the link layer) so as to adjust which devices the hub communicates with. The physical layer may be served by the link layer, so it may implement such data from the link layer. For example, the computing environment 314 may control which devices it will receive data from. For example, if the computing environment 314 knows that a certain network device has turned off, broken, or otherwise become unavailable or unreliable, the computing environment 314 may instruct the hub to prevent any data from being transmitted to the computing environment 314 from that network device. Such a process may be beneficial to avoid receiving data that is inaccurate or that has been influenced by an uncontrolled environment. As another example, computing environment 314 can communicate with a bridge, switch, router or gateway and influence which device within the system (e.g., system 200) the component selects as a destination. In some embodiments, computing environment 314 can interact with various layers by exchanging communications with equipment operating on a particular layer by routing or modifying existing communications. In another embodiment, such as in a grid computing environment, a node may determine how data within the environment should be routed (e.g., which node should receive certain data) based on certain parameters or information provided by other layers within the model.

As noted, the computing environment 314 may be a part of a communications grid environment, the communications of which may be implemented as shown in the protocol of FIG. 3. For example, referring back to FIG. 2, one or more of machines 220 and 240 may be part of a communications grid computing environment. A gridded computing environment may be employed in a distributed system with non-interactive workloads where data resides in memory on the machines, or compute nodes. In such an environment, analytic code, instead of a database management system, controls the processing performed by the nodes. Data is co-located by pre-distributing it to the grid nodes, and the analytic code on each node loads the local data into memory. Each node may be assigned a particular task such as a portion of a processing project, or to organize or control other nodes within the grid.

FIG. 4 illustrates a communications grid computing system 400 including a variety of control and worker nodes, according to embodiments of the present technology. Communications grid computing system 400 includes three control nodes and one or more worker nodes. Communications grid computing system 400 includes control nodes 402, 404, and 406. The control nodes are communicatively connected via communication paths 451, 453, and 455. Therefore, the control nodes may transmit information (e.g., related to the communications grid or notifications), to and receive information from each other. Although communications grid computing system 400 is shown in FIG. 4 as including three control nodes, the communications grid may include more or less than three control nodes.

Communications grid computing system (or just “communications grid”) 400 also includes one or more worker nodes. Shown in FIG. 4 are six worker nodes 410-420. Although FIG. 4 shows six worker nodes, a communications grid according to embodiments of the present technology may include more or less than six worker nodes. The number of worker nodes included in a communications grid may be dependent upon how large the project or data set is being processed by the communications grid, the capacity of each worker node, the time designated for the communications grid to complete the project, among others. Each worker node within the communications grid 400 may be connected (wired or wirelessly, and directly or indirectly) to control nodes 402-406. Therefore, each worker node may receive information from the control nodes (e.g., an instruction to perform work on a project) and may transmit information to the control nodes (e.g., a result from work performed on a project). Furthermore, worker nodes may communicate with each other (either directly or indirectly). For example, worker nodes may transmit data between each other related to a job being performed or an individual task within a job being performed by that worker node. However, in certain embodiments, worker nodes may not, for example, be connected (communicatively or otherwise) to certain other worker nodes. In an embodiment, worker nodes may only be able to communicate with the control node that controls it, and may not be able to communicate with other worker nodes in the communications grid, whether they are other worker nodes controlled by the control node that controls the worker node, or worker nodes that are controlled by other control nodes in the communications grid.

A control node may connect with an external device with which the control node may communicate (e.g., a grid user, such as a server or computer, may connect to a controller of the grid). For example, a server or computer may connect to control nodes and may transmit a project or job to the node. The project may include a data set. The data set may be of any size. Once the control node receives such a project including a large data set, the control node may distribute the data set or projects related to the data set to be performed by worker nodes. Alternatively, for a project including a large data set, the data set may be received or stored by a machine other than a control node (e.g., a HADOOP® standard-compliant data node employing the HADOOP® Distributed File System, or HDFS).

Control nodes may maintain knowledge of the status of the nodes in the grid (i.e., grid status information), accept work requests from clients, subdivide the work across worker nodes, coordinate the worker nodes, among other responsibilities. Worker nodes may accept work requests from a control node and provide the control node with results of the work performed by the worker node. A grid may be started from a single node (e.g., a machine, computer, server, etc.). This first node may be assigned or may start as the primary control node that will control any additional nodes that enter the grid.

When a project is submitted for execution (e.g., by a client or a controller of the grid) it may be assigned to a set of nodes. After the nodes are assigned to a project, a data structure (i.e., a communicator) may be created. The communicator may be used by the project for information to be shared between the project code running on each node. A communication handle may be created on each node. A handle, for example, is a reference to the communicator that is valid within a single process on a single node, and the handle may be used when requesting communications between nodes.

A control node, such as control node 402, may be designated as the primary control node. A server, computer or other external device may connect to the primary control node. Once the control node receives a project, the primary control node may distribute portions of the project to its worker nodes for execution. For example, when a project is initiated on communications grid 400, primary control node 402 controls the work to be performed for the project in order to complete the project as requested or instructed. The primary control node may distribute work to the worker nodes based on various factors, such as which subsets or portions of projects may be completed most efficiently and in the correct amount of time. For example, a worker node may perform analysis on a portion of data that is already local (e.g., stored on) the worker node. The primary control node also coordinates and processes the results of the work performed by each worker node after each worker node executes and completes its job. For example, the primary control node may receive a result from one or more worker nodes, and the control node may organize (e.g., collect and assemble) the results received and compile them to produce a complete result for the project received from the end user.

Any remaining control nodes, such as control nodes 404 and 406, may be assigned as backup control nodes for the project. In an embodiment, backup control nodes may not control any portion of the project. Instead, backup control nodes may serve as a backup for the primary control node and take over as primary control node if the primary control node were to fail. If a communications grid were to include only a single control node, and the control node were to fail (e.g., the control node is shut off or breaks) then the communications grid as a whole may fail and any project or job being run on the communications grid may fail and may not complete. While the project may be run again, such a failure may cause a delay (severe delay in some cases, such as overnight delay) in completion of the project. Therefore, a grid with multiple control nodes, including a backup control node, may be beneficial.

To add another node or machine to the grid, the primary control node may open a pair of listening sockets, for example. A socket may be used to accept work requests from clients, and the second socket may be used to accept connections from other grid nodes. The primary control node may be provided with a list of other nodes (e.g., other machines, computers, servers) that will participate in the grid, and the role that each node will fill in the grid. Upon startup of the primary control node (e.g., the first node on the grid), the primary control node may use a network protocol to start the server process on every other node in the grid. Command line parameters, for example, may inform each node of one or more pieces of information, such as: the role that the node will have in the grid, the host name of the primary control node, the port number on which the primary control node is accepting connections from peer nodes, among others. The information may also be provided in a configuration file, transmitted over a secure shell tunnel, recovered from a configuration server, among others. While the other machines in the grid may not initially know about the configuration of the grid, that information may also be sent to each other node by the primary control node. Updates of the grid information may also be subsequently sent to those nodes.

For any control node other than the primary control node added to the grid, the control node may open three sockets. The first socket may accept work requests from clients, the second socket may accept connections from other grid members, and the third socket may connect (e.g., permanently) to the primary control node. When a control node (e.g., primary control node) receives a connection from another control node, it first checks to see if the peer node is in the list of configured nodes in the grid. If it is not on the list, the control node may clear the connection. If it is on the list, it may then attempt to authenticate the connection. If authentication is successful, the authenticating node may transmit information to its peer, such as the port number on which a node is listening for connections, the host name of the node, information about how to authenticate the node, among other information. When a node, such as the new control node, receives information about another active node, it will check to see if it already has a connection to that other node. If it does not have a connection to that node, it may then establish a connection to that control node.

Any worker node added to the grid may establish a connection to the primary control node and any other control nodes on the grid. After establishing the connection, it may authenticate itself to the grid (e.g., any control nodes, including both primary and backup, or a server or user controlling the grid). After successful authentication, the worker node may accept configuration information from the control node.

When a node joins a communications grid (e.g., when the node is powered on or connected to an existing node on the grid or both), the node is assigned (e.g., by an operating system of the grid) a universally unique identifier (UUID). This unique identifier may help other nodes and external entities (devices, users, etc.) to identify the node and distinguish it from other nodes. When a node is connected to the grid, the node may share its unique identifier with the other nodes in the grid. Since each node may share its unique identifier, each node may know the unique identifier of every other node on the grid. Unique identifiers may also designate a hierarchy of each of the nodes (e.g., backup control nodes) within the grid. For example, the unique identifiers of each of the backup control nodes may be stored in a list of backup control nodes to indicate an order in which the backup control nodes will take over for a failed primary control node to become a new primary control node. However, a hierarchy of nodes may also be determined using methods other than using the unique identifiers of the nodes. For example, the hierarchy may be predetermined, or may be assigned based on other predetermined factors.

The grid may add new machines at any time (e.g., initiated from any control node). Upon adding a new node to the grid, the control node may first add the new node to its table of grid nodes. The control node may also then notify every other control node about the new node. The nodes receiving the notification may acknowledge that they have updated their configuration information.

Primary control node 402 may, for example, transmit one or more communications to backup control nodes 404 and 406 (and, for example, to other control or worker nodes within the communications grid). Such communications may sent periodically, at fixed time intervals, between known fixed stages of the project's execution, among other protocols. The communications transmitted by primary control node 402 may be of varied types and may include a variety of types of information. For example, primary control node 402 may transmit snapshots (e.g., status information) of the communications grid so that backup control node 404 always has a recent snapshot of the communications grid. The snapshot or grid status may include, for example, the structure of the grid (including, for example, the worker nodes in the grid, unique identifiers of the nodes, or their relationships with the primary control node) and the status of a project (including, for example, the status of each worker node's portion of the project). The snapshot may also include analysis or results received from worker nodes in the communications grid. The backup control nodes may receive and store the backup data received from the primary control node. The backup control nodes may transmit a request for such a snapshot (or other information) from the primary control node, or the primary control node may send such information periodically to the backup control nodes.

As noted, the backup data may allow the backup control node to take over as primary control node if the primary control node fails without requiring the grid to start the project over from scratch. If the primary control node fails, the backup control node that will take over as primary control node may retrieve the most recent version of the snapshot received from the primary control node and use the snapshot to continue the project from the stage of the project indicated by the backup data. This may prevent failure of the project as a whole.

A backup control node may use various methods to determine that the primary control node has failed. In one example of such a method, the primary control node may transmit (e.g., periodically) a communication to the backup control node that indicates that the primary control node is working and has not failed, such as a heartbeat communication. The backup control node may determine that the primary control node has failed if the backup control node has not received a heartbeat communication for a certain predetermined period of time. Alternatively, a backup control node may also receive a communication from the primary control node itself (before it failed) or from a worker node that the primary control node has failed, for example because the primary control node has failed to communicate with the worker node.

Different methods may be performed to determine which backup control node of a set of backup control nodes (e.g., backup control nodes 404 and 406) will take over for failed primary control node 402 and become the new primary control node. For example, the new primary control node may be chosen based on a ranking or “hierarchy” of backup control nodes based on their unique identifiers. In an alternative embodiment, a backup control node may be assigned to be the new primary control node by another device in the communications grid or from an external device (e.g., a system infrastructure or an end user, such as a server or computer, controlling the communications grid). In another alternative embodiment, the backup control node that takes over as the new primary control node may be designated based on bandwidth or other statistics about the communications grid.

A worker node within the communications grid may also fail. If a worker node fails, work being performed by the failed worker node may be redistributed amongst the operational worker nodes. In an alternative embodiment, the primary control node may transmit a communication to each of the operable worker nodes still on the communications grid that each of the worker nodes should purposefully fail also. After each of the worker nodes fail, they may each retrieve their most recent saved checkpoint of their status and re-start the project from that checkpoint to minimize lost progress on the project being executed.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process 500 for adjusting a communications grid or a work project in a communications grid after a failure of a node, according to embodiments of the present technology. The process may include, for example, receiving grid status information including a project status of a portion of a project being executed by a node in the communications grid, as described in operation 502. For example, a control node (e.g., a backup control node connected to a primary control node and a worker node on a communications grid) may receive grid status information, where the grid status information includes a project status of the primary control node or a project status of the worker node. The project status of the primary control node and the project status of the worker node may include a status of one or more portions of a project being executed by the primary and worker nodes in the communications grid. The process may also include storing the grid status information, as described in operation 504. For example, a control node (e.g., a backup control node) may store the received grid status information locally within the control node. Alternatively, the grid status information may be sent to another device for storage where the control node may have access to the information.

The process may also include receiving a failure communication corresponding to a node in the communications grid in operation 506. For example, a node may receive a failure communication including an indication that the primary control node has failed, prompting a backup control node to take over for the primary control node. In an alternative embodiment, a node may receive a failure that a worker node has failed, prompting a control node to reassign the work being performed by the worker node. The process may also include reassigning a node or a portion of the project being executed by the failed node, as described in operation 508. For example, a control node may designate the backup control node as a new primary control node based on the failure communication upon receiving the failure communication. If the failed node is a worker node, a control node may identify a project status of the failed worker node using the snapshot of the communications grid, where the project status of the failed worker node includes a status of a portion of the project being executed by the failed worker node at the failure time.

The process may also include receiving updated grid status information based on the reassignment, as described in operation 510, and transmitting a set of instructions based on the updated grid status information to one or more nodes in the communications grid, as described in operation 512. The updated grid status information may include an updated project status of the primary control node or an updated project status of the worker node. The updated information may be transmitted to the other nodes in the grid to update their stale stored information.

FIG. 6 illustrates a portion of a communications grid computing system 600 including a control node and a worker node, according to embodiments of the present technology. Communications grid 600 computing system includes one control node (control node 602) and one worker node (worker node 610) for purposes of illustration, but may include more worker and/or control nodes. The control node 602 is communicatively connected to worker node 610 via communication path 650. Therefore, control node 602 may transmit information (e.g., related to the communications grid or notifications), to and receive information from worker node 610 via path 650.

Similar to in FIG. 4, communications grid computing system (or just “communications grid”) 600 includes data processing nodes (control node 602 and worker node 610). Nodes 602 and 610 include multi-core data processors. Each node 602 and 610 includes a grid-enabled software component (GESC) 620 that executes on the data processor associated with that node and interfaces with buffer memory 622 also associated with that node. Each node 602 and 610 includes a database management software (DBMS) 628 that executes on a database server (not shown) at control node 602 and on a database server (not shown) at worker node 610.

Each node also includes a data store 624. Data stores 624, similar to network-attached data stores 110 in FIG. 1 and data stores 235 in FIG. 2, are used to store data to be processed by the nodes in the computing environment. Data stores 624 may also store any intermediate or final data generated by the computing system after being processed, for example in non-volatile memory. However in certain embodiments, the configuration of the grid computing environment allows its operations to be performed such that intermediate and final data results can be stored solely in volatile memory (e.g., RAM), without a requirement that intermediate or final data results be stored to non-volatile types of memory. Storing such data in volatile memory may be useful in certain situations, such as when the grid receives queries (e.g., ad hoc) from a client and when responses, which are generated by processing large amounts of data, need to be generated quickly or on-the-fly. In such a situation, the grid may be configured to retain the data within memory so that responses can be generated at different levels of detail and so that a client may interactively query against this information.

Each node also includes a user-defined function (UDF) 626. The UDF provides a mechanism for the DMBS 628 to transfer data to or receive data from the database stored in the data stores 624 that are managed by the DBMS. For example, UDF 626 can be invoked by the DBMS to provide data to the GESC for processing. The UDF 626 may establish a socket connection (not shown) with the GESC to transfer the data. Alternatively, the UDF 626 can transfer data to the GESC by writing data to shared memory accessible by both the UDF and the GESC.

The GESC 620 at the nodes 602 and 620 may be connected via a network, such as network 108 shown in FIG. 1. Therefore, nodes 602 and 620 can communicate with each other via the network using a predetermined communication protocol such as, for example, the Message Passing Interface (MPI). Each GESC 620 can engage in point-to-point communication with the GESC at another node or in collective communication with multiple GESCs via the network. The GESC 620 at each node may contain identical (or nearly identical) software instructions. Each node may be capable of operating as either a control node or a worker node. The GESC at the control node 602 can communicate, over a communication path 652, with a client device 630. More specifically, control node 602 may communicate with client application 632 hosted by the client device 630 to receive queries and to respond to those queries after processing large amounts of data.

DMBS 628 may control the creation, maintenance, and use of database or data structure (not shown) within a nodes 602 or 610. The database may organize data stored in data stores 624. The DMBS 628 at control node 602 may accept requests for data and transfer the appropriate data for the request. With such a process, collections of data may be distributed across multiple physical locations. In this example, each node 602 and 610 stores a portion of the total data managed by the management system in its associated data store 624.

Furthermore, the DBMS may be responsible for protecting against data loss using replication techniques. Replication includes providing a backup copy of data stored on one node on one or more other nodes. Therefore, if one node fails, the data from the failed node can be recovered from a replicated copy residing at another node. However, as described herein with respect to FIG. 4, data or status information for each node in the communications grid may also be shared with each node on the grid.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow chart showing an example method 700 for executing a project within a grid computing system, according to embodiments of the present technology. As described with respect to FIG. 6, the GESC at the control node may transmit data with a client device (e.g., client device 630) to receive queries for executing a project and to respond to those queries after large amounts of data have been processed. The query may be transmitted to the control node, where the query may include a request for executing a project, as described in operation 702. The query can contain instructions on the type of data analysis to be performed in the project and whether the project should be executed using the grid-based computing environment, as shown in operation 704.

To initiate the project, the control node may determine if the query requests use of the grid-based computing environment to execute the project. If the determination is no, then the control node initiates execution of the project in a solo environment (e.g., at the control node), as described in operation 710. If the determination is yes, the control node may initiate execution of the project in the grid-based computing environment, as described in operation 706. In such a situation, the request may include a requested configuration of the grid. For example, the request may include a number of control nodes and a number of worker nodes to be used in the grid when executing the project. After the project has been completed, the control node may transmit results of the analysis yielded by the grid, as described in operation 708. Whether the project is executed in a solo or grid-based environment, the control node provides the results of the project, as described in operation 712.

As noted with respect to FIG. 2, the computing environments described herein may collect data (e.g., as received from network devices, such as sensors, such as network devices 204-209 in FIG. 2, and client devices or other sources) to be processed as part of a data analytics project, and data may be received in real time as part of a streaming analytics environment (e.g., ESP). Data may be collected using a variety of sources as communicated via different kinds of networks or locally, such as on a real-time streaming basis. For example, network devices may receive data periodically from network device sensors as the sensors continuously sense, monitor and track changes in their environments. More specifically, an increasing number of distributed applications develop or produce continuously flowing data from distributed sources by applying queries to the data before distributing the data to geographically distributed recipients. An event stream processing engine (ESPE) may continuously apply the queries to the data as it is received and determines which entities should receive the data. Client or other devices may also subscribe to the ESPE or other devices processing ESP data so that they can receive data after processing, based on for example the entities determined by the processing engine. For example, client devices 230 in FIG. 2 may subscribe to the ESPE in computing environment 214. In another example, event subscription devices 1024 a-c, described further with respect to FIG. 10, may also subscribe to the ESPE. The ESPE may determine or define how input data or event streams from network devices or other publishers (e.g., network devices 204-209 in FIG. 2) are transformed into meaningful output data to be consumed by subscribers, such as for example client devices 230 in FIG. 2.

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram including components of an Event Stream Processing Engine (ESPE), according to embodiments of the present technology. ESPE 800 may include one or more projects 802. A project may be described as a second-level container in an engine model managed by ESPE 800 where a thread pool size for the project may be defined by a user. Each project of the one or more projects 802 may include one or more continuous queries 804 that contain data flows, which are data transformations of incoming event streams. The one or more continuous queries 804 may include one or more source windows 806 and one or more derived windows 808.

The ESPE may receive streaming data over a period of time related to certain events, such as events or other data sensed by one or more network devices. The ESPE may perform operations associated with processing data created by the one or more devices. For example, the ESPE may receive data from the one or more network devices 204-209 shown in FIG. 2. As noted, the network devices may include sensors that sense different aspects of their environments, and may collect data over time based on those sensed observations. For example, the ESPE may be implemented within one or more of machines 220 and 240 shown in FIG. 2. The ESPE may be implemented within such a machine by an ESP application. An ESP application may embed an ESPE with its own dedicated thread pool or pools into its application space where the main application thread can do application-specific work and the ESPE processes event streams at least by creating an instance of a model into processing objects.

The engine container is the top-level container in a model that manages the resources of the one or more projects 802. In an illustrative embodiment, for example, there may be only one ESPE 800 for each instance of the ESP application, and ESPE 800 may have a unique engine name. Additionally, the one or more projects 802 may each have unique project names, and each query may have a unique continuous query name and begin with a uniquely named source window of the one or more source windows 806. ESPE 800 may or may not be persistent.

Continuous query modeling involves defining directed graphs of windows for event stream manipulation and transformation. A window in the context of event stream manipulation and transformation is a processing node in an event stream processing model. A window in a continuous query can perform aggregations, computations, pattern-matching, and other operations on data flowing through the window. A continuous query may be described as a directed graph of source, relational, pattern matching, and procedural windows. The one or more source windows 806 and the one or more derived windows 808 represent continuously executing queries that generate updates to a query result set as new event blocks stream through ESPE 800. A directed graph, for example, is a set of nodes connected by edges, where the edges have a direction associated with them.

An event object may be described as a packet of data accessible as a collection of fields, with at least one of the fields defined as a key or unique identifier (ID). The event object may be created using a variety of formats including binary, alphanumeric, XML, etc. Each event object may include one or more fields designated as a primary identifier (ID) for the event so ESPE 800 can support operation codes (opcodes) for events including insert, update, upsert, and delete. Upsert opcodes update the event if the key field already exists; otherwise, the event is inserted. For illustration, an event object may be a packed binary representation of a set of field values and include both metadata and field data associated with an event. The metadata may include an opcode indicating if the event represents an insert, update, delete, or upsert, a set of flags indicating if the event is a normal, partial-update, or a retention generated event from retention policy management, and a set of microsecond timestamps that can be used for latency measurements.

An event block object may be described as a grouping or package of event objects. An event stream may be described as a flow of event block objects. A continuous query of the one or more continuous queries 804 transforms a source event stream made up of streaming event block objects published into ESPE 800 into one or more output event streams using the one or more source windows 806 and the one or more derived windows 808. A continuous query can also be thought of as data flow modeling.

The one or more source windows 806 are at the top of the directed graph and have no windows feeding into them. Event streams are published into the one or more source windows 806, and from there, the event streams may be directed to the next set of connected windows as defined by the directed graph. The one or more derived windows 808 are all instantiated windows that are not source windows and that have other windows streaming events into them. The one or more derived windows 808 may perform computations or transformations on the incoming event streams. The one or more derived windows 808 transform event streams based on the window type (that is operators such as join, filter, compute, aggregate, copy, pattern match, procedural, union, etc.) and window settings. As event streams are published into ESPE 800, they are continuously queried, and the resulting sets of derived windows in these queries are continuously updated.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process including operations performed by an event stream processing engine, according to some embodiments of the present technology. As noted, the ESPE 800 (or an associated ESP application) defines how input event streams are transformed into meaningful output event streams. More specifically, the ESP application may define how input event streams from publishers (e.g., network devices providing sensed data) are transformed into meaningful output event streams consumed by subscribers (e.g., a data analytics project being executed by a machine or set of machines).

Within the application, a user may interact with one or more user interface windows presented to the user in a display under control of the ESPE independently or through a browser application in an order selectable by the user. For example, a user may execute an ESP application, which causes presentation of a first user interface window, which may include a plurality of menus and selectors such as drop down menus, buttons, text boxes, hyperlinks, etc. associated with the ESP application as understood by a person of skill in the art. As further understood by a person of skill in the art, various operations may be performed in parallel, for example, using a plurality of threads.

At operation 900, an ESP application may define and start an ESPE, thereby instantiating an ESPE at a device, such as machine 220 and/or 240. In an operation 902, the engine container is created. For illustration, ESPE 800 may be instantiated using a function call that specifies the engine container as a manager for the model.

In an operation 904, the one or more continuous queries 804 are instantiated by ESPE 800 as a model. The one or more continuous queries 804 may be instantiated with a dedicated thread pool or pools that generate updates as new events stream through ESPE 800. For illustration, the one or more continuous queries 804 may be created to model business processing logic within ESPE 800, to predict events within ESPE 800, to model a physical system within ESPE 800, to predict the physical system state within ESPE 800, etc. For example, as noted, ESPE 800 may be used to support sensor data monitoring and management (e.g., sensing may include force, torque, load, strain, position, temperature, air pressure, fluid flow, chemical properties, resistance, electromagnetic fields, radiation, irradiance, proximity, acoustics, moisture, distance, speed, vibrations, acceleration, electrical potential, or electrical current, etc.).

ESPE 800 may analyze and process events in motion or “event streams.” Instead of storing data and running queries against the stored data, ESPE 800 may store queries and stream data through them to allow continuous analysis of data as it is received. The one or more source windows 806 and the one or more derived windows 808 may be created based on the relational, pattern matching, and procedural algorithms that transform the input event streams into the output event streams to model, simulate, score, test, predict, etc. based on the continuous query model defined and application to the streamed data.

In an operation 906, a publish/subscribe (pub/sub) capability is initialized for ESPE 800. In an illustrative embodiment, a pub/sub capability is initialized for each project of the one or more projects 802. To initialize and enable pub/sub capability for ESPE 800, a port number may be provided. Pub/sub clients can use a host name of an ESP device running the ESPE and the port number to establish pub/sub connections to ESPE 800.

FIG. 10 illustrates an ESP system 1000 interfacing between publishing device 1022 and event subscribing devices 1024 a-c, according to embodiments of the present technology. ESP system 1000 may include ESP device or subsystem 851, event publishing device 1022, an event subscribing device A 1024 a, an event subscribing device B 1024 b, and an event subscribing device C 1024 c. Input event streams are output to ESP device 851 by publishing device 1022. In alternative embodiments, the input event streams may be created by a plurality of publishing devices. The plurality of publishing devices further may publish event streams to other ESP devices. The one or more continuous queries instantiated by ESPE 800 may analyze and process the input event streams to form output event streams output to event subscribing device A 1024 a, event subscribing device B 1024 b, and event subscribing device C 1024 c. ESP system 1000 may include a greater or a fewer number of event subscribing devices of event subscribing devices.

Publish-subscribe is a message-oriented interaction paradigm based on indirect addressing. Processed data recipients specify their interest in receiving information from ESPE 800 by subscribing to specific classes of events, while information sources publish events to ESPE 800 without directly addressing the receiving parties. ESPE 800 coordinates the interactions and processes the data. In some cases, the data source receives confirmation that the published information has been received by a data recipient.

A publish/subscribe API may be described as a library that enables an event publisher, such as publishing device 1022, to publish event streams into ESPE 800 or an event subscriber, such as event subscribing device A 1024 a, event subscribing device B 1024 b, and event subscribing device C 1024 c, to subscribe to event streams from ESPE 800. For illustration, one or more publish/subscribe APIs may be defined. Using the publish/subscribe API, an event publishing application may publish event streams into a running event stream processor project source window of ESPE 800, and the event subscription application may subscribe to an event stream processor project source window of ESPE 800.

The publish/subscribe API provides cross-platform connectivity and endianness compatibility between ESP application and other networked applications, such as event publishing applications instantiated at publishing device 1022, and event subscription applications instantiated at one or more of event subscribing device A 1024 a, event subscribing device B 1024 b, and event subscribing device C 1024 c.

Referring back to FIG. 9, operation 906 initializes the publish/subscribe capability of ESPE 800. In an operation 908, the one or more projects 802 are started. The one or more started projects may run in the background on an ESP device. In an operation 910, an event block object is received from one or more computing device of the event publishing device 1022.

ESP subsystem 800 may include a publishing client 1002, ESPE 800, a subscribing client A 1004, a subscribing client B 1006, and a subscribing client C 1008. Publishing client 1002 may be started by an event publishing application executing at publishing device 1022 using the publish/subscribe API. Subscribing client A 1004 may be started by an event subscription application A, executing at event subscribing device A 1024 a using the publish/subscribe API. Subscribing client B 1006 may be started by an event subscription application B executing at event subscribing device B 1024 b using the publish/subscribe API. Subscribing client C 1008 may be started by an event subscription application C executing at event subscribing device C 1024 c using the publish/subscribe API.

An event block object containing one or more event objects is injected into a source window of the one or more source windows 806 from an instance of an event publishing application on event publishing device 1022. The event block object may generated, for example, by the event publishing application and may be received by publishing client 1002. A unique ID may be maintained as the event block object is passed between the one or more source windows 806 and/or the one or more derived windows 808 of ESPE 800, and to subscribing client A 1004, subscribing client B 1006, and subscribing client C 1008 and to event subscription device A 1024 a, event subscription device B 1024 b, and event subscription device C 1024 c. Publishing client 1002 may further generate and include a unique embedded transaction ID in the event block object as the event block object is processed by a continuous query, as well as the unique ID that publishing device 1022 assigned to the event block object.

In an operation 912, the event block object is processed through the one or more continuous queries 804. In an operation 914, the processed event block object is output to one or more computing devices of the event subscribing devices 1024 a-c. For example, subscribing client A 1004, subscribing client B 1006, and subscribing client C 1008 may send the received event block object to event subscription device A 1024 a, event subscription device B 1024 b, and event subscription device C 1024 c, respectively.

ESPE 800 maintains the event block containership aspect of the received event blocks from when the event block is published into a source window and works its way through the directed graph defined by the one or more continuous queries 804 with the various event translations before being output to subscribers. Subscribers can correlate a group of subscribed events back to a group of published events by comparing the unique ID of the event block object that a publisher, such as publishing device 1022, attached to the event block object with the event block ID received by the subscriber.

In an operation 916, a determination is made concerning whether or not processing is stopped. If processing is not stopped, processing continues in operation 910 to continue receiving the one or more event streams containing event block objects from the, for example, one or more network devices. If processing is stopped, processing continues in an operation 918. In operation 918, the started projects are stopped. In operation 920, the ESPE is shutdown.

As noted, in some embodiments, big data is processed for an analytics project after the data is received and stored. In other embodiments, distributed applications process continuously flowing data in real-time from distributed sources by applying queries to the data before distributing the data to geographically distributed recipients. As noted, an event stream processing engine (ESPE) may continuously apply the queries to the data as it is received and determines which entities receive the processed data. This allows for large amounts of data being received and/or collected in a variety of environments to be processed and distributed in real time. For example, as shown with respect to FIG. 2, data may be collected from network devices that may include devices within the internet of things, such as devices within a home automation network. However, such data may be collected from a variety of different resources in a variety of different environments. In any such situation, embodiments of the present technology allow for real-time processing of such data.

Aspects of the current disclosure provide technical solutions to technical problems, such as computing problems that arise when an ESP device fails which results in a complete service interruption and potentially significant data loss. The data loss can be catastrophic when the streamed data is supporting mission critical operations such as those in support of an ongoing manufacturing or drilling operation. An embodiment of an ESP system achieves a rapid and seamless failover of ESPE running at the plurality of ESP devices without service interruption or data loss, thus significantly improving the reliability of an operational system that relies on the live or real-time processing of the data streams. The event publishing systems, the event subscribing systems, and each ESPE not executing at a failed ESP device are not aware of or effected by the failed ESP device. The ESP system may include thousands of event publishing systems and event subscribing systems. The ESP system keeps the failover logic and awareness within the boundaries of out-messaging network connector and out-messaging network device.

In one example embodiment, a system is provided to support a failover when event stream processing (ESP) event blocks. The system includes, but is not limited to, an out-messaging network device and a computing device. The computing device includes, but is not limited to, a processor and a computer-readable medium operably coupled to the processor. The processor is configured to execute an ESP engine (ESPE). The computer-readable medium has instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to support the failover. An event block object is received from the ESPE that includes a unique identifier. A first status of the computing device as active or standby is determined. When the first status is active, a second status of the computing device as newly active or not newly active is determined. Newly active is determined when the computing device is switched from a standby status to an active status. When the second status is newly active, a last published event block object identifier that uniquely identifies a last published event block object is determined. A next event block object is selected from a non-transitory computer-readable medium accessible by the computing device. The next event block object has an event block object identifier that is greater than the determined last published event block object identifier. The selected next event block object is published to an out-messaging network device. When the second status of the computing device is not newly active, the received event block object is published to the out-messaging network device. When the first status of the computing device is standby, the received event block object is stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart of an example of a process for generating and using a machine-learning model according to some aspects. Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that relates to mathematical models that can learn from, categorize, and make predictions about data. Such mathematical models, which can be referred to as machine-learning models, can classify input data among two or more classes; cluster input data among two or more groups; predict a result based on input data; identify patterns or trends in input data; identify a distribution of input data in a space; or any combination of these. Examples of machine-learning models can include (i) neural networks; (ii) decision trees, such as classification trees and regression trees; (iii) classifiers, such as Naïve bias classifiers, logistic regression classifiers, ridge regression classifiers, random forest classifiers, least absolute shrinkage and selector (LASSO) classifiers, and support vector machines; (iv) clusterers, such as k-means clusterers, mean-shift clusterers, and spectral clusterers; (v) factorizers, such as factorization machines, principal component analyzers and kernel principal component analyzers; and (vi) ensembles or other combinations of machine-learning models. In some examples, neural networks can include deep neural networks, feed-forward neural networks, recurrent neural networks, convolutional neural networks, radial basis function (RBF) neural networks, echo state neural networks, long short-term memory neural networks, bi-directional recurrent neural networks, gated neural networks, hierarchical recurrent neural networks, stochastic neural networks, modular neural networks, spiking neural networks, dynamic neural networks, cascading neural networks, neuro-fuzzy neural networks, or any combination of these.

Different machine-learning models may be used interchangeably to perform a task. Examples of tasks that can be performed at least partially using machine-learning models include various types of scoring; bioinformatics; cheminformatics; software engineering; fraud detection; customer segmentation; generating online recommendations; adaptive websites; determining customer lifetime value; search engines; placing advertisements in real time or near real time; classifying DNA sequences; affective computing; performing natural language processing and understanding; object recognition and computer vision; robotic locomotion; playing games; optimization and metaheuristics; detecting network intrusions; medical diagnosis and monitoring; or predicting when an asset, such as a machine, will need maintenance.

Any number and combination of tools can be used to create machine-learning models. Examples of tools for creating and managing machine-learning models can include SAS® Enterprise Miner, SAS® Rapid Predictive Modeler, and SAS® Model Manager, SAS Cloud Analytic Services (CAS)®, SAS Viya® of all which are by SAS Institute Inc. of Cary, N.C.

Machine-learning models can be constructed through an at least partially automated (e.g., with little or no human involvement) process called training. During training, input data can be iteratively supplied to a machine-learning model to enable the machine-learning model to identify patterns related to the input data or to identify relationships between the input data and output data. With training, the machine-learning model can be transformed from an untrained state to a trained state. Input data can be split into one or more training sets and one or more validation sets, and the training process may be repeated multiple times. The splitting may follow a k-fold cross-validation rule, a leave-one-out-rule, a leave-p-out rule, or a holdout rule. An overview of training and using a machine-learning model is described below with respect to the flow chart of FIG. 11.

In block 1104, training data is received. In some examples, the training data is received from a remote database or a local database, constructed from various subsets of data, or input by a user. The training data can be used in its raw form for training a machine-learning model or pre-processed into another form, which can then be used for training the machine-learning model. For example, the raw form of the training data can be smoothed, truncated, aggregated, clustered, or otherwise manipulated into another form, which can then be used for training the machine-learning model.

In block 1106, a machine-learning model is trained using the training data. The machine-learning model can be trained in a supervised, unsupervised, or semi-supervised manner. In supervised training, each input in the training data is correlated to a desired output. This desired output may be a scalar, a vector, or a different type of data structure such as text or an image. This may enable the machine-learning model to learn a mapping between the inputs and desired outputs. In unsupervised training, the training data includes inputs, but not desired outputs, so that the machine-learning model has to find structure in the inputs on its own. In semi-supervised training, only some of the inputs in the training data are correlated to desired outputs.

In block 1108, the machine-learning model is evaluated. For example, an evaluation dataset can be obtained, for example, via user input or from a database. The evaluation dataset can include inputs correlated to desired outputs. The inputs can be provided to the machine-learning model and the outputs from the machine-learning model can be compared to the desired outputs. If the outputs from the machine-learning model closely correspond with the desired outputs, the machine-learning model may have a high degree of accuracy. For example, if 90% or more of the outputs from the machine-learning model are the same as the desired outputs in the evaluation dataset, the machine-learning model may have a high degree of accuracy. Otherwise, the machine-learning model may have a low degree of accuracy. The 90% number is an example only. A realistic and desirable accuracy percentage is dependent on the problem and the data.

In some examples, if the machine-learning model has an inadequate degree of accuracy for a particular task, the process can return to block 1106, where the machine-learning model can be further trained using additional training data or otherwise modified to improve accuracy. If the machine-learning model has an adequate degree of accuracy for the particular task, the process can continue to block 1110.

In block 1110, new data is received. In some examples, the new data is received from a remote database or a local database, constructed from various subsets of data, or input by a user. The new data may be unknown to the machine-learning model. For example, the machine-learning model may not have previously processed or analyzed the new data.

In block 1112, the trained machine-learning model is used to analyze the new data and provide a result. For example, the new data can be provided as input to the trained machine-learning model. The trained machine-learning model can analyze the new data and provide a result that includes a classification of the new data into a particular class, a clustering of the new data into a particular group, a prediction based on the new data, or any combination of these.

In block 1114, the result is post-processed. For example, the result can be added to, multiplied with, or otherwise combined with other data as part of a job. As another example, the result can be transformed from a first format, such as a time series format, into another format, such as a count series format. Any number and combination of operations can be performed on the result during post-processing.

A more specific example of a machine-learning model is the neural network 1200 shown in FIG. 12. The neural network 1200 is represented as multiple layers of interconnected neurons, such as neuron 1208, that can exchange data between one another. The layers include an input layer 1202 for receiving input data, a hidden layer 1204, and an output layer 1206 for providing a result. The hidden layer 1204 is referred to as hidden because it may not be directly observable or have its input directly accessible during the normal functioning of the neural network 1200. Although the neural network 1200 is shown as having a specific number of layers and neurons for exemplary purposes, the neural network 1200 can have any number and combination of layers, and each layer can have any number and combination of neurons.

The neurons and connections between the neurons can have numeric weights, which can be tuned during training. For example, training data can be provided to the input layer 1202 of the neural network 1200, and the neural network 1200 can use the training data to tune one or more numeric weights of the neural network 1200. In some examples, the neural network 1200 can be trained using backpropagation. Backpropagation can include determining a gradient of a particular numeric weight based on a difference between an actual output of the neural network 1200 and a desired output of the neural network 1200. Based on the gradient, one or more numeric weights of the neural network 1200 can be updated to reduce the difference, thereby increasing the accuracy of the neural network 1200. This process can be repeated multiple times to train the neural network 1200. For example, this process can be repeated hundreds or thousands of times to train the neural network 1200.

In some examples, the neural network 1200 is a feed-forward neural network. In a feed-forward neural network, every neuron only propagates an output value to a subsequent layer of the neural network 1200. For example, data may only move one direction (forward) from one neuron to the next neuron in a feed-forward neural network.

In other examples, the neural network 1200 is a recurrent neural network. A recurrent neural network can include one or more feedback loops, allowing data to propagate in both forward and backward through the neural network 1200. This can allow for information to persist within the recurrent neural network. For example, a recurrent neural network can determine an output based at least partially on information that the recurrent neural network has seen before, giving the recurrent neural network the ability to use previous input to inform the output.

In some examples, the neural network 1200 operates by receiving a vector of numbers from one layer; transforming the vector of numbers into a new vector of numbers using a matrix of numeric weights, a nonlinearity, or both; and providing the new vector of numbers to a subsequent layer of the neural network 1200. Each subsequent layer of the neural network 1200 can repeat this process until the neural network 1200 outputs a final result at the output layer 1206. For example, the neural network 1200 can receive a vector of numbers as an input at the input layer 1202. The neural network 1200 can multiply the vector of numbers by a matrix of numeric weights to determine a weighted vector. The matrix of numeric weights can be tuned during the training of the neural network 1200. The neural network 1200 can transform the weighted vector using a nonlinearity, such as a sigmoid tangent or the hyperbolic tangent. In some examples, the nonlinearity can include a rectified linear unit, which can be expressed using the equation y=max(x, 0) where y is the output and x is an input value from the weighted vector. The transformed output can be supplied to a subsequent layer, such as the hidden layer 1204, of the neural network 1200. The subsequent layer of the neural network 1200 can receive the transformed output, multiply the transformed output by a matrix of numeric weights and a nonlinearity, and provide the result to yet another layer of the neural network 1200. This process continues until the neural network 1200 outputs a final result at the output layer 1206.

Other examples of the present disclosure may include any number and combination of machine-learning models having any number and combination of characteristics. The machine-learning model(s) can be trained in a supervised, semi-supervised, or unsupervised manner, or any combination of these. The machine-learning model(s) can be implemented using a single computing device or multiple computing devices, such as the communications grid computing system 400 discussed above.

Implementing some examples of the present disclosure at least in part by using machine-learning models can reduce the total number of processing iterations, time, memory, electrical power, or any combination of these consumed by a computing device when analyzing data. For example, a neural network may more readily identify patterns in data than other approaches. This may enable the neural network to analyze the data using fewer processing cycles and less memory than other approaches, while obtaining a similar or greater level of accuracy.

FIG. 13A illustrates a block diagram of an example embodiment of a distributed processing system 2000 incorporating one or more storage devices 2100, multiple node devices 2700, and a control device 2500. As depicted, these devices 2100, 2500 and/or 2700 may exchange communications thereamong related to the storage and retrieval of a data set 2330 via a network 2999, including one or more of metadata 2335 or encrypted metadata 2336; map data 2510 in the form of a map base 2115 and/or map extensions 2117, or an encrypted map base 2116 and/or encrypted map extensions 2118; data set portions 2732 in the form of segments 2230 that may each be made up of one or more data blocks 2130 or encrypted data blocks 2131, that may each be made up of one or more data sub-blocks 2133; node data 2530 and/or pointer data 2735. However, one or more of the devices 2100, 2500 and/or 2700 may exchange other data entirely unrelated to the storage and retrieval of the data set 2330 with each other and/or with still other devices (not shown) via the network 2999. In various embodiments, the network 2999 may be a single network that may extend within a single building or other relatively limited area, a combination of connected networks that may extend a considerable distance, and/or may include the Internet. Thus, the network 2999 may be based on any of a variety (or combination) of communications technologies by which communications may be effected, including without limitation, wired technologies employing electrically and/or optically conductive cabling, and wireless technologies employing infrared, radio frequency (RF) or other forms of wireless transmission.

The data set 2330 may be divisible into the data set portions 2732. Different ones of the data set portions 2732 may be temporarily stored by different ones of the node devices 2700 as the multiple node devices 2700 separately, and at least partially in parallel, perform processing tasks with the data set portions 2732. Such at least partially parallel performances of processing tasks by the multiple node devices 2700 may be coordinated by the control device 2500. The control device 2500 may distribute indications of the processing tasks to be performed and/or other related information, such as the metadata 2335, among the multiple node devices 2700. The control device 2500 may also receive indications of progress in the separate, but at least partially parallel, performance of processing tasks from each of the node devices 2700.

In preparation for and/or in support of such processing tasks, the data set 2330 may be stored for longer term storage as a single data file 2110 by the one or more storage devices 2100. Where the data set 2330 is employed by the multiple node devices 2700 as an input to such processing tasks, the multiple node devices 2700 may retrieve corresponding ones of the data set portions 2732 (in the form of the data bocks 2130 or the encrypted data blocks 2131), at least partially in parallel, from the one or more storage devices 2100. Alternatively or additionally, where the data set 2330 is generated as an output of such processing tasks, the multiple node devices 2700 may store corresponding ones of the data set portions 2732 (in the form of the data blocks 2130 or the encrypted data blocks 2131), at least partially in parallel, to the one or more storage devices 2100. Such at least partially parallel exchanges of the data set 2330 between the multiple node devices 2700 and the one or more storage devices 2100 may also be coordinated by the control device 2500. The control device 2500 may distribute, to each node device 2700, one or more pointers to locations within the data file 2110 at which one or more corresponding ones of the encrypted data blocks 2131 may be stored, and/or from which one or more corresponding ones of the encrypted data blocks 2131 may be retrieved.

In various embodiments, each of the one or more storage devices 2100 may incorporate one or more of a processor component 2150, a storage 2160 and a network interface 2190 to couple each of the one or more storage devices 2100 to the network 2999. The storage 2160 may store a control routine 2140 and/or at least a portion of the data file 2110 in which the data set 2330 is stored either as a set of the data blocks 2130 where the data set 2330 is to be stored in a non-encrypted form, or as a set of the encrypted data blocks 2131 where the data set 2330 is to be stored in encrypted form. Correspondingly, also stored within the data file 2110 may be the metadata 2335 and/or a map of the blocks of information stored within the data file 2110 in non-encrypted form as the map base 2115 that may be accompanied by multiple ones of the map extensions 2117, or also stored in the data file 2110 may be the encrypted metadata 2336 and/or the map of the blocks of information stored within the data files 2110 in encrypted form as the encrypted map base 2116 that may be accompanied by multiple ones of the encrypted map extensions 2118. The control routine 2140 may incorporate a sequence of instructions operative on the processor component 2150 to implement logic to perform various functions. In executing the control routine 2140, the processor component 2150 of each of the one or more storage devices 2100 may operate the network interface 2190 to receive the data set portions 2732 as either the data blocks 2130 or the encrypted data blocks 2131 from corresponding ones of the node devices 2700, and may store the data set portions 2732 within the data file 2110 in whichever of the encrypted or non-encrypted forms in which it is received. Alternatively or additionally, the processor component 2150 may retrieve the data blocks 2130 or the encrypted data blocks 2131 from the data file 2110, and may operate the network interface 2190 to transmit the retrieved data blocks 2130 or encrypted data blocks 2131 to corresponding ones of the node devices 2700.

In various embodiments, each of the multiple node devices 2700 may incorporate one or more of a processor component 2750, a storage 2760 and a network interface 2790 to couple each of the node devices 2700 to the network 2999. The storage 2760 may store a control routine 2740; the metadata 2335; one or more of the data set portions 1732, along with one or more of the data blocks 2130 or one or more of the encrypted data blocks 2131; and/or the pointer data 2735. The control routine 2740 may incorporate a sequence of instructions operative on the processor component 2750 to implement logic to perform various functions. In executing the control routine 2740, the processor component 2750 of each of the node devices 2700 may operate the network interface 2790 to receive indications of processing tasks to perform on one or more of the data set portions 2732 at least partially in parallel with others of the multiple node devices 2700, and/or other related information, from the control device 2500. Also, the processor component 2750 may organize and/or encrypt the one or more data set portions 2732 to generate one or more data blocks 2130 or to generate one or more encrypted data blocks 2131; and may operate the network interface 2790 to transmit the one or more data blocks 2130 or the one or more encrypted data blocks 2131 to the one or more storage devices 1100 for storage within the data file 2110. Alternatively or additionally, the processor component 2550 may operate the network interface 2790 to receive one or more of the data blocks 2130 or one or more of the encrypted data blocks 2131 from the one or more storage devices 2100. In embodiments in which one or more of the encrypted data blocks 2131 are retrieved, the processor component 2550 may decrypt the retrieved one or more encrypted data blocks 2131 to generate corresponding one or more data set portions 2732 in support of performing such processing tasks.

In various embodiments, the control device 2500 may incorporate one or more of a processor component 2550, a storage 2560 and a network interface 2590 to couple the control device 2500 to the network 2999. The storage 2560 may store a control routine 2540; the metadata 2335, along with the encrypted metadata 2336; map data 2510, along with the map base 2115 and/or the map extensions 2117, or along with the encrypted map base 2116 and/or the encrypted map extensions 2118; and/or node data 2530. The control routine 2540 may incorporate a sequence of instructions operative on the processor component 2550 to implement logic to perform various functions. In executing the control routine 2540, the processor component 2550 may operate the network interface 2590 to transmit indications to each of the node devices 2700 of processing tasks to perform on one or more of the data set portions 2732 at least partially in parallel with others of the multiple node devices 2700, and/or other related information. Also, in embodiments in which encryption is to be used, the processor component 2550 may encrypt the metadata 2335 to generate the encrypted metadata 2336, may encrypt a map base 2115 and/or multiple map extensions 2117 formed from the map data 2510 to generate the encrypted map base 2116 and/or the multiple encrypted map extensions 2118, respectively. The processor component 2550 may also operate the network interface 2590 to transmit the metadata 2335, the map base 2115 and/or the map extensions 2117, or to alternatively transmit the encrypted metadata 2336, the encrypted map base 2116 and/or the encrypted map extensions 2118, to the one or more storage devices 1100 for storage within the data file 2110. Alternatively or additionally, the processor component 2550 may operate the network interface 2590 to receive the metadata 2335, the map base 2115 and/or the map extensions 2117, or to alternatively receive the encrypted metadata 2336, the encrypted map base 2116 and/or the encrypted map extensions 2118, from the one or more storage devices 2110. Also, in embodiments in which decryption is to be used, the processor component 2550 may decrypt the encrypted metadata 2336 to generate the metadata 2335, and may decrypt the encrypted map base 2116 and/or the encrypted map extensions 2118 to generate the map base 2115 and/or multiple map extensions 2117, respectively, of the map data 2510.

In some embodiments, the exchanges of the data blocks 2130 or of the encrypted data blocks 2131 may occur directly between the multiple node devices 2700 and the one or more storage devices 2100 via the network 2999. However, and as will be explained in greater detail, in other embodiments, such exchanges of the data blocks 2130 or of the encrypted data blocks 2131 may be relayed through the control device 2500. In such other embodiments, the processor component 2550 of the control device 2500 may operate the network 2590 and the storage 2560 to receive, buffer and then retransmit each of the data blocks 2130 or each of the encrypted data blocks 2131 from the one or more storage devices 2100 to the multiple node devices 2700, or vice versa. However, in such other embodiments where encryption is used, and as will be explained in greater detail, the work of encrypting data set portions 2732 to generate the encrypted data blocks 2131 and of decrypting the encrypted data blocks 2131 to generate the data set portions 2732 may still be performed in a distributed manner by the multiple node devices 2700.

In some embodiments, the one or more storage devices 2100 may impose one or more restrictions on the manner in which the data blocks 2130 or the encrypted data blocks 2131 may be provided to the one or more storage devices 2100 as part of the longer term storage of the data set 2330 therein. By way of example, there may be a minimum size threshold and/or a maximum size threshold that is at least selectively imposed on the amount of data that may be transmitted as a unit to the one or more storage devices 2100. Alternatively or additionally, there may be an upper limit on the quantity of such units of data that may be transmitted to the one or more storage devices 2100 when transmitting the entirety of a data set 2330 thereto. In such embodiments, and as will be explained in greater detail, the processor component 2550 of the control device 2500 may coordinate the grouping of at least the data blocks 2130 or of at least the encrypted data blocks 2131 among the node devices 2700, by the processor components 2750 of the node devices 2700, into a set of the segments 2230 that each adhere to such limits.

FIG. 13B illustrates a block diagram of an alternate example embodiment of the distributed processing system 2000 that is substantially similar to the example of FIG. 13A, but features an alternate embodiment of one of the node devices 2700 that additionally performs the coordinating functions of the control device 2500 in lieu of there being a separate and distinct control device 2500 to do so. As depicted, in some embodiments, such an alternate embodiment of the node device 2700 may additionally incorporate a controller 2507 that, itself, incorporates the processor component 2550 and the storage 2560 that were depicted as components of the separate control device 2500 of FIG. 13A to perform the coordinating functions thereof. As also depicted as an alternative, in some embodiments, the processor component 2750 of such an alternate embodiment of the node device 2700 may be caused by its execution of a virtual machine manager (VMM) routine 2745 stored within the storage 2760 to generate a virtual machine (VM) 2565 and/or a VM 2765. Within the VM 2765, the processor component 2750 may execute the control routine 2740 to perform processing tasks with one or more data set portions 2732 at least partially in parallel with others of the node devices 2700. Alternatively or additionally, within the VM 2565, the processor component 2750 may execute the control routine 2540 to perform the coordinating tasks that are otherwise performed by the processor component 2550 of the separate and distinct control device 2500 of FIG. 13A, and/or by the controller 2507.

FIG. 13C illustrates a block diagram of another alternate example embodiment of the distributed processing system 2000 that is substantially similar to the examples of FIGS. 13A and 13B, but features an alternate embodiment of one of the control device 2500 that additionally performs the processing, encryption and/or decryption functions of the multiple node devices 2700 in lieu of there being a separate and distinct multitude of the node devices 2700 to do so. As depicted, in some embodiments, the processor component 2550 of such an alternate embodiment of the control device 2500 may incorporate multiple processor cores 2555 and/or another mechanism by which multiple threads of execution may be supported to take the place of the multiple processor components 2750 of the multiple node devices 2700. As also depicted as an alternative, in some embodiments, the processor component 2550 of such an alternate embodiment of the control device 2500 may be caused by its execution of the VMM routine 2745 stored within the storage 2560 to generate a virtual machine (VM) 2565 and multiple one VMs 2765 to take the place of the multiple node devices 2700. Within each VM 2765, the processor component 2550 (and/or a processing core 2555 thereof) may execute an instance of the control routine 2740 to perform processing tasks with one or more data set portions 2732 at least partially in parallel with performances of those processing tasks through the execution of other instances of the control routine 2740 within others of the VMs 2765. Alternatively or additionally, within the VM 2565, the processor component 2550 may execute the control routine 2540 to perform the coordinating tasks that are otherwise performed by the processor component 2550 of separate and distinct control device 2500 of FIG. 13A, and/or by the controller 2507 of FIG. 13B.

FIGS. 14A, 14B and 14C, together, illustrate an example of the manner in which the data set 2330 may be stored in unencrypted form within the data file 2110 by the one or more storage devices 2100 as multiple data blocks 2130, and FIGS. 15A, 15B and 15C, together, illustrate an example of the manner in which the data set 2330 may be stored in encrypted form within the data file 2110 by the one or more storage devices 2100 as multiple encrypted data blocks 2131. The data of the data set 1330 may be any of a variety of types of data (e.g., societal statistics data, business operations data, raw data from an experiment, financial data, medical treatment analysis data, etc.), and may be organized within the data set 2330 in any of a variety of ways (e.g., rows and columns, columnar, hypercube, linked list, tree, graph etc.) that may be made traversable using any of a variety of mechanisms to find a particular data point. The data set 2330 may incorporate the metadata 2335, which may include a description of the manner in which the data of the data set 2330 is organized.

The size of the data set 2330 may be sufficiently large that processing, encrypting and/or decrypting the data set 2330 using a single processing device may be deemed highly impractical. Indeed, it may be that the data set 2330 also changes frequently enough over time (e.g., is updated hourly, daily, weekly, etc.) such that the length of time required to process, encrypt and/or decrypt the data set 2330 using a single processing device would yield results that would already be out of date before such operations could be completed. Thus, it may be deemed highly desirable to process, encrypt and/or decrypt the data set 2330 in a distributed and at least partially parallel manner using a group of interconnected processing devices (sometimes referred to as a “grid” of node devices), such as the multiple node devices 2700 of the embodiment of the distributed processing system 2000 of either FIG. 13A or 13B.

Alternatively, with advent of highly parallelized processor components such as graphics processing units (GPUs) with thousands of processing cores, and/or with specialized cryptographic accelerators with multiple cores optimized for encryption and decryption operations, it may be deemed highly desirable to process, encrypt and/or decrypt the data set 2330 in a distributed and at least partially parallel manner using the numerous processor cores 2555 of one or more of such processor components within a single device, such as the one or more processor components 2550 of the embodiment of the control device 2500 of the distributed processing system 2000 of FIG. 13C.

More specifically, where one or more of the processor components 2500 are implemented with a GPU, there may be thousands of processor cores 2555 that are each able to perform a operations of a simpler instruction set in a highly parallelized manner much more quickly than the typically much smaller quantity of processor cores 2555 in more conventional central processing unit (CPUs). Thus, where encryption, decryption and/or processing operations that are to be performed are amenable to the use of such simpler instruction sets in a highly parallelized manner, considerable improvements in performance may be realized. Alternatively or additionally, where one or more of the processor components 2500 are implemented with a cryptographic accelerator, there may be dozens of cross-checking pairs of processor cores 2555 that are each able to perform instructions of an instruction set specialized for cryptographic operations, and including various security features in the application programming interfaces (APIs) by which they are controlled. The built-in cross-checking features between such pairs of processor cores 2555 may allow operation-by-operation monitoring between the processor cores 2555 of each such pair for signs of having been compromised in the performance of operations, including encryption and/or decryption operations. As will be explained in greater detail, the manner in which the encryption, storage, retrieval and decryption of the data set 2330 is effected advantageously obviates the need for coordination among the node devices 2700, between the control device 2500 and the node devices 2700, and/or among processor cores 2555 of the processor component(s) 2550.

Furthermore, the processing resources required to encrypt, store, retrieve and decrypt the map data 2510, which enables the accurate and flexible distribution of data blocks and/or the data sub-blocks representing data set portions 2732, is usually relatively small compared to the processing resources to perform analogous operations with the data set 2330. Therefore, making the tradeoff to consume the processing resources needed to perform such operations with the map data 2510 may be more than compensated for by the significant improvements that doing so makes possible in performance and flexibility in the handling of the data set 2330. Although the degree of parallelism in the handling of the data set 2330 may be impacted by workload and environmental constraints common to various computing systems, the parallelism achieved during encryption, storage, retrieval and decryption of the data set 2330 more readily scales with progressively larger forms of the data set 2330 and/or as the quantity of node devices 2700 and/or processor cores 2555 increases. By way of example, the time required to exchange encryption data needed to encrypt and/or decrypt blocks of the data of the data set 2330 and/or to exchange information concerning locations of the encrypted data blocks 2131 of the data set 2330 within the data file 2110 may be significantly smaller than the time required to perform the encryption, storage, retrieval and/or decryption of those blocks.

The data within the data set 2330 may be organized in a manner that enables such parallel distributed processing. More specifically, the organization of the data within the data set 2330 may enable the division of the data set 2330 into multiple ones of the data set portions 2732 (with varying degrees of flexibility, as will be explained) in which each of the data set portions 2732 is able to be processed without dependencies on the results of the processing of any of the other data set portions 2732. As a result, the data set portions 2732 may each be distributable to any of the node devices 2700 and/or to any of the processor cores 2555 of the processor 2550 without regard to which one of the node devices 2700 and/or the processor cores 2555 that any of the other data set portions 2732 are distributed to.

In embodiments that include the multiple node devices 2700, such divisibility of the data set 2330 obviates the need to incur the latencies of serializing the processing of two or more of the data set portions 2732, as well as obviating the latencies of transferring an output of the processing of one data set portion 2732 by one node device 2700 through the network 2999 to another node device 2700 at which another data set portion 2732 is to be processed. Such divisibility of the data set 2330 may also enable the exchange of the data blocks 2130 or of the encrypted data blocks 2131 between the multiple node devices 2700 and the one or more storage devices 2100, either for storage or retrieval of the data set 2330, in a distributed and at least partially parallel manner More specifically, each of the data blocks 2130 or encrypted data blocks 2131 may be exchanged between one of the node devices 2700 and the one or more storage devices 2100 without regard to whether or when any of the other data blocks 2130 or encrypted data blocks 2131 has been similarly exchanged between another of the node devices 2700 and the one or more storage devices 2100. To better enable such distributed and at least partially parallel exchanges of the data blocks 2130 or encrypted data blocks 2131, the data blocks 2130 or encrypted data blocks 2131 and the information required to access them may be stored within the data file 2110 in a manner that minimizes dependencies among the control device 2500 and the multiple node devices 2700 in performing the storage and retrieval of the data blocks 2130 or encrypted data blocks 2131 and such associated information. Stated differently, and as discussed at multiple points throughout, a form of organization or ordering is imposed on the contents of the data file 2110, including portions of the data set 2330 and various pieces of information about the manner in which those portions are prepared for storage and/or the manner in which those portions are stored within the data file 2110. As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, such concepts of there being an organization or ordering of such contents of the data file 2110 refers to the manner in which the contents of the data file 2110 are accessed via an addressing or indexing scheme that has been defined for the data file 2110. And as will also be familiar to those skilled in the art, the physical reality of the manner in which the data file 2110 may actually be stored by the one or more storage devices 2100 may entail a division of the data file 2110 in to various portions that may be located in any of a variety of storage locations within storage components of the one or more storage devices 2100, but while still enabling the contents of the data file 2110 to be accessible via such an addressing or indexing scheme.

Referring more specifically to FIGS. 14A and 14B associated with storage of the data set 2330 in unencrypted form, the data file 2110 may include a file header 2111 located at or toward a starting end 2112 of the data file 2110, and a payload section 2113 that may start at a location following the file header 2111 and may end at a location coincident with the other end 2114 of the data file 2110. The one or more storage devices 2100 may employ any of a variety of file systems in storing and managing access to files within the one or more storage devices 2100, including and not limited to, network file system (NFS), block device storage, any of the various versions of file allocation table (FAT), High Sierra Format (ISO-9660), write anywhere file layout (WAFL), XFS, HDFS, MapR-FS, cloud storage (e.g. Amazon S3, Red Hat Ceph, Kubernetes, etc.), etc. The file header 2111 may be a single contiguous series of bytes that may include indications of any of a variety of details of the data file 2110 that may be germane to, and that may be organized in compliance with the specifications of, one of the file systems employed by the one or more storage devices 2100.

The payload section 2113 may be a single contiguous series of bytes that occupies the majority of data file 2110, and depending on various aspects of the file system employed by the one or more storage devices 2100, the starting end of the payload section 2113 may be located toward the starting end 2112 of the data file 2110 and may follow at least the file header 2111. At or toward the starting end of the payload section 2113, a first quantity of multiple kilobytes of the payload section 2113 may be occupied by the map base 2115 that provides at least a portion of the map data 2510 that describes the manner in which the data blocks 2130 are organized within the payload section 2113. As will be discussed in greater detail, where the map data 2510 exceeds a threshold of size, the map data 2510 may be divided into the map base 2115 and multiple map extensions 2117 (depicted in greater detail in FIG. 14C). However, each of FIGS. 14A and 14B depict a situation in which the map data 2510 does not exceed such a threshold such that it may not be so divided, and therefore, may be entirely contained within the map base 2115. Such a first quantity of kilobytes of the payload section 2113 may be followed by a second quantity of kilobytes of the payload section 2113 that may be occupied by the metadata 2335. Following these two quantities of kilobytes may then be at least one contiguous series of the data blocks 2130.

In some embodiments, the manner in which the data of the data set 2330 is organized within the data set 2330 may be relatively highly granular, thereby providing a relatively high degree of flexibility in the division of the data set 2330 into the data set portions 2732. By way of example, where the data of the data set 2330 is organized into rows and columns with a relatively large quantity of rows, a relatively high degree of granularity may be provided based on distribution of the rows among the data set portions 2732. With such a relatively high degree of flexibility in defining the data set portions 2732, the quantity and/or size of each data set portion 2732 may be more tightly correlated to the quantity of the node devices 2700 and/or processor cores 2555 available at the time the data set 2330 is generated, and/or may be more tightly correlated to the resources within each of those available node devices 2700 and/or processor cores 2555.

However, in other embodiments, the data of the data set 2330 may be organized within the data set 2330 in a manner that has relatively low granularity, thereby providing a relatively low degree of flexibility in the division of the data set 2330 into the data set portions 2732. As a result, the quantity of data set portions 2732 into which the data set 2330 may be divisible, while still avoiding dependencies in processing therebetween, may be relatively limited such that at least some of the data set portions 2732 may be required to be relatively large. Such an embodiment of the data set 2330 may be described as being made up of partitioned data in which the relatively limited opportunities for division of the data set 2330 may define a relatively low quantity of partitions. An example of such partitioning may be an embodiment of the data set 2330 in which the data is partitioned such that it is divisible into no more than fifty data set portions 2732 that each correspond to one of the fifty states of the United States. The characteristics of the data within each of those partitions may be such that the data within each of the partitions may be processed with no dependencies on the data within any of the other partitions. However, the processing of the data within any one of the partitions may require access to at least a substantial portion of the data therein such that the data within each of the partitions cannot be distributed across more than one node device 2700 without a relatively high likelihood that time consuming exchanges of data would be required thereamong.

FIG. 14A depicts an example embodiment of the organization of the data of the data set 2330 within the payload section 2113 of the data file 2110 where the data of the data set 2330 is of relatively high granularity such that the data of the data set 2330 is deemed to be non-partitioned data. For such a non-partitioned embodiment, each of the data blocks 2130 in the contiguous series of the data blocks 2130 (including the depicted data blocks 2130 a and 2130 b) that follows at least the map base 2115 and the metadata 2335 may correspond to a single data set portion 2732 that may be processed by one of the node devices 2700. In embodiments of the distributed processing system 2000 that include the multiple node devices 2700, each of the node devices 2700 may act independently of the other node devices 2700 to store a single data set portion 2732 as a single corresponding data block 2130 (e.g., the depicted single data block 2130 a), or to store multiple data set portions 2732 as multiple corresponding data blocks 2130 (e.g., the depicted multiple adjacently stored data blocks 2130 a and 2130 b).

The map base 2115 may include a contiguous series of bytes. At the starting end of the map base 2115, a first quantity of bytes of the map base 2115 may be occupied by an indication of the map size 2515 that specifies how many bytes, words, doublewords, etc. in total are used to provide a map of the data blocks 2130 within the payload section 2113. Following such a first quantity of bytes may be a second quantity of bytes of the map base 2115 that are occupied by indications of one or more map parameters 2516 that may include an indication that the data of the data set 2330 is non-partitioned data. Following these quantities of bytes may then be a series of map entries 2511 (including the depicted map entries 2511 a and 2511 b). The order of the map entries 2511 within at least the map base 2115 may correspond to the order of the data blocks 2130 within the payload section 2113.

FIG. 14B depicts an example embodiment of the organization of the data of the data set 2330 within the payload section 2113 of the data file 2110 where the data of the data set 2330 is of relatively low granularity such that the data of the data set 2330 is deemed to be partitioned data divided into multiple partitions 2333. As previously discussed, the data of the data set 2330 within each partition 2333 may need to be processed by a single one of the node devices 2700 such that the data of the data set 2330 within each partition 2333 cannot be distributed among multiple ones of the node devices 2700. It may also be deemed likely that there will be wide variations in size among the partitions 2333 due to wide variation in the frequency with which items of data of the data set 2330 are assigned to each partition 2333. Such variation may be due to variations in the size of the items of data, such as where the data includes strings of widely varying character or binary length; linked lists of widely varying quantities of entries; tree data structures with widely varying quantities of branches; and/or graphs, arrays, vectors, tensors, digital video of widely varying size. Thus, as a result, while one of the node devices 2700 may be caused to process the data within a single large partition 2333, another of the node devices 2700 may be caused to process the data within multiple significantly smaller partitions 2333.

In recognition of such differences between partitioned data and non-partitioned data, the manner in which an embodiment of the data set 2330 made up of partitioned data may be organized within the payload section 2113 of the data file 2110 may differ from the manner in which an embodiment of the data set 2330 made up of non-partitioned data may be so organized. More specifically, for partitioned data, where the quantity and/or size of each data set portion 2732 may be more tightly correlated to the quantity and/or sizes of the partitions 2333, each of the data blocks 2130 in the contiguous series of the data blocks 2130 that follows at least the map base 2115 and the metadata 2335 may include one or more data sub-blocks 2133, and each data sub-block 2133 may correspond to a single data set portion 2732. In embodiments of the distributed processing system 2000 that include the multiple node devices 2700, each of the node devices 2700 may act independently of the other node devices 2700 to store a single data set portion 2732 as a single corresponding data sub-block 2133 within a single data block 2130, or to store multiple data set portions 2732 as multiple corresponding data sub-blocks 2133 within a single data block 2130.

Such differences in at least the manner in which an embodiment of the data set 2330 made up of partitioned data is organized into data blocks 2130 from the manner in which an embodiment of the data set 2330 made up of non-partitioned data are so organized may be accompanied by corresponding differences in the content of the map base 2115. More specifically, among the indications of one or more map parameters 2516 may be an indication that the data of the data set 2330 is partitioned data. Again, following the earlier-described quantities of bytes in which the map size 2515 and/or various map parameters 2516 may be stored, may be a series of map entries 2511. The order of the map entries 2511 within at least the map base 2115 may correspond to the order of the data blocks 2130 within the payload section 2113. However, each map entry 2511 may include a data sub-block count specifying the quantity of data sub-blocks 2133 that are included within the corresponding data block 2130. Following the sub-block count within each map entry 2511 may be a series of one or more map sub-entries 2513 that each correspond to one of the data sub-blocks 2133 within the corresponding data block 2130, and the order of those map sub-entries 2513 may correspond to the order of the data sub-blocks 2133 within the corresponding data block 2130. Each such map sub-entry 2513 may include an indication of the size of the corresponding data sub-block 2133 and a hashed identifier indicative of the partition 2333 to which the data within the corresponding data sub-block 2133 belongs.

In such a partitioned embodiment, each partition 2333 may be given a unique label that provides a form of unique identification. However, just as the data within the data set 2330 may be any of a variety of types of data, the labels given to each partition 2333 may take any of a variety of forms, including and not limited to, numerical values and/or alpha-numeric text that may be of any arbitrary length. The hashed identifiers may be normalized versions of those labels, and may be generated in some embodiments by taking a hash of the labels, and/or by performing any of a variety of other functions on those labels in other embodiments.

Referring again to both FIGS. 14A and 14B, in various embodiments, the quantity of data blocks 2130 and/or of data sub-blocks 2133 may become relatively numerous that a relatively large quantity of storage space within the payload section 2113 may need to be allocated to accommodate a correspondingly large quantity of map entries 2511. In some embodiments, additional space for the storage of map entries 2511 beyond what can be accommodated within the storage space allocated to just the map base 2115 may be provided at one or more other locations within the payload section 2113.

More specifically, and referring to FIG. 14C, the map data 2510 may be divided into the map base 2115 and one or more accompanying map extensions 2117. As depicted, the map entries 2511 that may otherwise be stored within the map base 2115 may, instead, be stored within the first of multiple map extensions 2117. This may be done to make room within the map base 2115 for a series of extension pointers 2517 that each provide an indication of the location of one of the map extensions 2117 within the payload section 2113, and the order of the extension pointers 2517 within the map base 2115 may correspond to the order of the map extensions 2117 within the payload section 2113.

As was explained in the Distributed File System Cases (which are listed above in the first paragraphs of this present application), in some embodiments, the one or more map extensions 2117 may be positioned to immediately follow the map base 2115 and the metadata 2335 within the payload section 2113, while in other embodiments, the one or more map extensions 2117 may be interspersed among the data blocks 2130 within the payload section 2113. In the counterpart FIG. 12C of the Distributed File System Cases, multiple ones of the map extensions 2117 were depicted as interspersed among the data blocks 2130.

However, as previously discussed, the one or more storage devices 2100 may impose one or more restrictions on the manner in which the data blocks 2130 may be provided to the one or more storage devices 2100 as part of the longer term storage of the data set 2330 therein. There may be a lower limit and/or an upper limit that is at least selectively imposed on the amount of data that may be transmitted as a unit to the one or more storage devices 2100. Alternatively or additionally, there may be an upper limit on the quantity of such units of data that may be transmitted to the one or more storage devices 2100 when transmitting the entirety of a data set 2330 thereto. To address such limits, and as will be explained in greater detail, the control device 2500 may coordinate the grouping of at least the data blocks 2130 among the node devices 2700 into the set of segments 2230. In so doing, the control device 2500 may cooperate with one of the node devices 2700 to incorporate the map base 2115, the one or more map extensions 2117 and/or the metadata 2335 into one of the segments 2230. Thus, it may be deemed desirable to position the map extensions 2117 to immediately follow the map base 2115 and the metadata 2335 to better enable such incorporation of the map extensions 2117 into a single one of the segments 2230 along with the map base 2115 and the metadata 2335. Thus, unlike the counterpart FIG. 12C of the Distributed File System Cases, FIG. 14C of this present application depicts the positioning of the map extensions 2117 immediately after the map base 2115 and the metadata 2335, and before all of the data blocks 2130.

As depicted, among the encrypted map extensions 2118, there may be an ordering of the encrypted map extensions 2118 from the encrypted map extension 2118 that is closest to the encrypted map base 2116 near the starting end 2112 of the data file 2110 onward to the encrypted map extension 2118 that is furthest from the encrypted map base 2116, and this ordering may correspond to the ordering of the encrypted data blocks 2131 from the encrypted data block 2131 that is closest to the starting end 2112 of the data file 2110 onward to the encrypted data block 2131 that is closest to the other end 2114 of the data file 2110. Thus, as depicted in FIG. 14C, the encrypted map extension 2118 a is the closest one within the payload section 2113 to the encrypted map base 2116 and corresponds to the encrypted data blocks 2131 that are closest within the payload section 2113 to the starting end 2112 of the data file 2110, while the next encrypted map extension 2118 b is the next one further away from the encrypted map base 2116 and corresponds to the encrypted data blocks 2131 that are the next closest within the payload section 2113 to the starting end 2112 of the data file 2110.

In some embodiments, the map base 2115 and each of the map extensions 2117 may share a common size. In other embodiments, the map extension 2117 closest to the map base 2115 within the payload section 2113 (e.g. the map extension 2117 a) may have a size that is double the size of the map base 2115, and each subsequent map extension 2117 within the payload section 2113 (e.g., each map extension 21187 that is the next one to be further away from the map base 2115 in the order of closest to furthest) may have a size that is double the size of the preceding map extension 2117 within the payload section 2113 (e.g., double the size of the map extension 2117 that is the next one to be closer to the map base 2115, such that the map extension 2117 b may be double the size of the map extension 2117 a). As a result, of such a scheme of increasing sizes of the map extensions 2117 (or as a result of any of a variety of similar such schemes), the size of the map extensions 2117 from the closest to the furthest may grow exponentially. Where such a known and predictable pattern of increasing size in the map extensions 2117 is used, there may be no need to store an indication within the map base 2115 of the sizes of each of the map extensions 2117.

Referring more specifically to FIGS. 15A and 15B associated with storage of the data set 2330 in encrypted form, the data file 2110 may include a file header 2111 located at or toward the starting end 2112 of the data file 2110, and the payload section 2113 that may start at a location following the file header 2111 and may end at a location coincident with the other end 2114 of the data file 2110. Again, the one or more storage devices 2100 may employ any of a variety of file systems in storing and managing access to files within the one or more storage devices 2100, and the file header 2111 may include indications of any of a variety of details of the data file 2110 that may be germane to one of the file systems employed by the one or more storage devices 2100.

Again, the payload section 2113 may be a single contiguous series of bytes that occupies the majority of data file 2110, and depending on various aspects of the file system employed by the one or more storage devices 2100, the starting end of the payload section 2113 may be located toward the starting end 2112 of the data file 2110 and may follow at least the file header 2111. However, unlike what was depicted of the contents of the payload section 2113 in FIGS. 14A and 14B, in FIGS. 15A and 15B, the contents of the payload section 2113 may include additional items associated with the use of encryption. At or toward the starting end of the payload section 2113, a few bytes of the payload section 2113 may be occupied by the map block encryption data 2119 that provides the encryption information needed to decrypt the encrypted map base 2116. As previously discussed, in some embodiments, the map block encryption data 2119 may be subjected to a XOR operation prior to storage within the data file 2110 to thereby hide the map block encryption data 2119 in plain sight by causing it to appear to be simply part of the encrypted data. Following such a quantity of a few bytes, a first quantity of multiple kilobytes of the payload section 2113 may be occupied by the encrypted map base 2116. The encrypted map base 2116 may be the encrypted form of the map base 2115 that provides at least a portion of the map data 2510 that describes the manner in which the encrypted data blocks 2131 are organized within the payload section 2113. As will be discussed in greater detail, where the map data 2510 exceeds a threshold of size, the map data 2510 may be divided into the map base 2115 and multiple map extensions 2117, which may then be encrypted as the encrypted map base 2116 and the multiple encrypted map extensions 2118 (depicted in greater detail in FIG. 15C). However, each of FIGS. 15A and 15B depict a situation in which the map data 2510 does not exceed such a threshold such that it may not be so divided, and therefore, may be entirely contained within the map base 2115. Such a first quantity of kilobytes of the payload section 2113 may be followed by a second quantity of kilobytes of the payload section 2113 that may be occupied by the encrypted metadata 2336, which may be the encrypted form of the metadata 2335. Following these two quantities of kilobytes may then be at least one contiguous series of the encrypted data blocks 2131.

Again, in some embodiments, the manner in which the data of the data set 2330 is organized within the data set 2330 may be relatively highly granular, thereby providing a relatively high degree of flexibility in the division of the data set 2330 into the data set portions 2732. With such a relatively high degree of flexibility in defining the data set portions 2732, the quantity and/or size of each data set portion 2732 may be more tightly correlated to the quantity of the node devices 2700 and/or processor cores 2555 available at the time the data set 2330 is generated, and/or may be more tightly correlated to the resources within each of those available node devices 2700 and/or processor cores 2555. However, in other embodiments, the data of the data set 2330 may be organized within the data set 2330 in a manner that has relatively low granularity, thereby providing a relatively low degree of flexibility in the division of the data set 2330 into the data set portions 2732. As a result, the quantity of data set portions 2732 into which the data set 2330 may be divisible, while still avoiding dependencies in processing therebetween, may be relatively limited such that at least some of the data set portions 2732 may be required to be relatively large. Such an embodiment of the data set 2330 may be described as being made up of partitioned data in which the relatively limited opportunities for division of the data set 2330 may define a relatively low quantity of partitions.

FIG. 15A depicts an example embodiment of the organization of the data of the data set 2330 within the payload section 2113 of the data file 2110 where the data of the data set 2330 is of relatively high granularity such that the data of the data set 2330 is deemed to be non-partitioned data. For such a non-partitioned embodiment, each of the encrypted data blocks 2131 in the contiguous series of the encrypted data blocks 2131 (including the depicted encrypted data blocks 2131 a and 2131 b) that follows at least the encrypted map base 2116 and the encrypted metadata 2336 may correspond to a single data set portion 2732 that may be processed by one of the node devices 2700. In embodiments of the distributed processing system 2000 that include the multiple node devices 2700, each of the node devices 2700 may act independently of the other node devices 2700 to encrypt a single data set portion 2732 to generate a single corresponding encrypted data block 2131 (e.g., the depicted single encrypted data block 2131 a), or to encrypt multiple data set portions 2732 to generate multiple corresponding encrypted data blocks 2131 (e.g., the depicted multiple adjacently stored encrypted data blocks 2131 a and 2131 b).

The map base 2115 may include a contiguous series of bytes. At the starting end of the map base 2115, a first quantity of bytes of the map base 2115 may be occupied by an indication of the map size 2515 that specifies how many bytes, words, doublewords, etc. in total are used to provide a map of the encrypted data blocks 2131 within the payload section 2113. Following such a first quantity of bytes may be a second quantity of bytes of the map base 2115 that are occupied by indications of one or more map parameters 2516 that may include an indication that the data of the data set 2330 is non-partitioned data. Following such a second quantity of bytes may be a third quantity of bytes of the map base 2115 that are occupied by metadata block encryption data 2339 that may provide encryption information needed to decrypt the encrypted metadata 2336. Following these first three such quantities of bytes may then be a series of map entries 2511 (including the depicted map entries 2511 a and 2511 b). The order of the map entries 2511 within at least the map base 2115 may correspond to the order of the encrypted data blocks 2131 within the payload section 2113.

FIG. 15B depicts an example embodiment of the organization of the data of the data set 2330 within the payload section 2113 of the data file 2110 where the data of the data set 2330 is of relatively low granularity such that the data of the data set 2330 is deemed to be partitioned data divided into multiple partitions 2333. Again, the data of the data set 2330 within each partition 2333 may need to be processed by a single one of the node devices 2700 such that the data of the data set 2330 within each partition 2333 cannot be distributed among multiple ones of the node devices 2700. It may also be deemed likely that there will be wide variations in size among the partitions 2333 due to wide variation in the frequency with which items of data of the data set 2330 are assigned to each partition 2333.

Again, in recognition of such differences between partitioned data and non-partitioned data, the manner in which an embodiment of the data set 2330 made up of partitioned data may be organized within the payload section 2113 of the data file 2110 may differ from the manner in which an embodiment of the data set 2330 made up of non-partitioned data may be so organized. More specifically, for partitioned data, where the quantity and/or size of each data set portion 2732 may be more tightly correlated to the quantity and/or sizes of the partitions 2333, each of the encrypted data blocks 2131 in the contiguous series of the encrypted data blocks 2131 that follows at least the encrypted map base 2116 and the encrypted metadata 2336 may include one or more data sub-blocks 2133, and each data sub-block 2133 may correspond to a single data set portion 2732. In embodiments of the distributed processing system 2000 that include the multiple node devices 2700, each of the node devices 2700 may act independently of the other node devices 2700 to encrypt a single data set portion 2732 as a single corresponding data sub-block 2133 within a single encrypted data block 2131, or to encrypt multiple data set portions 2732 as multiple corresponding data sub-blocks 2133 within a single encrypted data block 2131.

Such differences in at least the manner in which an embodiment of the data set 2330 made up of partitioned data is encrypted from the manner in which an embodiment of the data set 2330 made up of non-partitioned data is encrypted may be accompanied by corresponding differences in the content of the map base 2115. More specifically, among the indications of one or more map parameters 2516 may be an indication that the data of the data set 2330 is partitioned data. Again, following the three quantities of bytes in which the map size 2515, various map parameters 2516 and/or the metadata block encryption data 2339 may be stored, may be a series of map entries 2511. The order of the map entries 2511 within at least the map base 2115 may correspond to the order of the encrypted data blocks 2131 within the payload section 2113. However, each map entry 2511 may include a data sub-block count specifying the quantity of data sub-blocks 2133 that are included within the corresponding encrypted data block 2131. Following the sub-block count within each map entry 2511 may be a series of one or more map sub-entries 2513 that each correspond to one of the data sub-blocks 2133 within the corresponding encrypted data block 2131, and the order of those map sub-entries 2513 may correspond to the order of the data sub-blocks 2133 within the corresponding encrypted data block 2131. Each such map sub-entry 2513 may include an indication of the size of the corresponding data sub-block 2133 and a hashed identifier indicative of the partition 2333 to which the data within the corresponding data sub-block 2133 belongs.

Again, in such a partitioned embodiment, each partition 2333 may be given a unique label that provides a form of unique identification. And again, the hashed identifiers may be normalized versions of those labels, and may be generated in some embodiments by taking a hash of the labels, and/or by performing any of a variety of other functions on those labels in other embodiments.

Referring again to both FIGS. 15A and 15B, in various embodiments, the quantity of encrypted data blocks 2131 and/or of data sub-blocks 2133 may become relatively numerous that a relatively large quantity of storage space within the payload section 2113 may need to be allocated to accommodate a correspondingly large quantity of map entries 2511. In some embodiments, additional space for the storage of map entries 2511 beyond what can be accommodated within the storage space allocated to just the encrypted map base 2116 may be provided at one or more other locations within the payload section 2113.

More specifically, and referring to FIG. 15C, the map data 2510 may be divided into the map base 2115 that is subsequently encrypted to generate the encrypted map base 2116, and one or more accompanying map extensions 2117 that are subsequently encrypted to generate the corresponding one or more encrypted map extensions 2118. As depicted, the map entries 2511 that may otherwise be stored within the map base 2115 may, instead, be stored within the first of multiple map extensions 2117. This may be done to make room within the map base 2115 for a series of extension pointers 2517 that each provide an indication of the location of one of the map extensions 2117 (as stored in its encrypted form, i.e., as one of the encrypted map extensions 2118) within the payload section 2113, and the order of the extension pointers 2517 within the map base 2115 may correspond to the order of the map extensions 2117 (again, as stored in their encrypted form, i.e., he encrypted map extensions 2118) within the payload section 2113.

As was explained in the Distributed Encryption Cases (which are listed above in the first paragraphs of this present application), in some embodiments, the one or more encrypted map extensions 2118 may be positioned to immediately follow the encrypted map base 2116 and the encrypted metadata 2336, and in other embodiments, the one or more encrypted map extensions 2118 may be interspersed among the encrypted data blocks 2131 within the payload section 1113. These two options for the positioning of the one or more encrypted map extensions 2118 are carried over from the earlier-discussed Distributed File System Cases. In the counterpart FIG. 14C of the Distributed Encryption Cases, multiple ones of the encrypted map extensions 2118 were depicted as interspersed among the encrypted data blocks 2131. Also, it was explained in the description of the Distributed Encryption Cases that there may be advantages to such a positioning of the encrypted map extensions 2118, including more efficient retrieval of the encrypted data blocks 2131 and further enhancements to security.

However, again, the one or more storage devices 2100 may impose one or more restrictions on the manner in which the encrypted data blocks 2131 may be provided to the one or more storage devices 2100 as part of the longer term storage of the data set 2330 therein. Again, to address such limits, and as will be explained in greater detail, the control device 2500 may coordinate the grouping of at least the encrypted data blocks 2131 among the node devices 2700 into the set of segments 2230. In so doing, the control device 2500 may cooperate with one of the node devices 2700 to incorporate the map block encryption data 2119, the encrypted map base 2116, the one or more encrypted map extensions 2118 and/or the encrypted metadata 2336 into one of the segments 2230. Thus, it may be deemed desirable to position the encrypted map extensions 2118 to immediately follow the encrypted map base 2116 and the encrypted metadata 2336 to better enable such incorporation of the encrypted map extensions 2118 into a single one of the segments 2230. Thus, unlike the counterpart FIG. 14C of the Distributed Encryption Cases, FIG. 15C of this present application depicts the positioning of the encrypted map extensions 2118 immediately after the encrypted map base 2116 and the encrypted metadata 2336, and before all of the encrypted data blocks 2131.

As depicted, among the encrypted map extensions 2118, there may be an ordering of the encrypted map extensions 2118 from the encrypted map extension 2118 that is closest to the encrypted map base 2116 near the starting end 2112 of the data file 2110 onward to the encrypted map extension 2118 that is furthest from the encrypted map base 2116, and this ordering may correspond to the ordering of the encrypted data blocks 2131 from the encrypted data block 2131 that is closest to the starting end 2112 of the data file 2110 onward to the encrypted data block 2131 that is closest to the other end 2114 of the data file 2110. Thus, as depicted in FIG. 15C, the encrypted map extension 2118 a is the closest one within the payload section 2113 to the encrypted map base 2116 and corresponds to the encrypted data blocks 2131 that are closest within the payload section 2113 to the starting end 2112 of the data file 2110, while the next encrypted map extension 2118 b is the next one further away from the encrypted map base 2116 and corresponds to the encrypted data blocks 2131 that are the next closest within the payload section 2113 to the starting end 2112 of the data file 2110.

In some embodiments, the encrypted map base 2116 and each of the encrypted map extensions 2118 may share a common size. In other embodiments, the encrypted map extension 2118 closest to the encrypted map base 2116 within the payload section 2113 (e.g. the encrypted map extension 2118 a) may have a size that is double the size of the encrypted map base 2116, and each subsequent encrypted map extension 2118 within the payload section 2113 (e.g., each encrypted map extension 2118 that is the next one to be further away from the encrypted map base 2116 in the order of closest to furthest) may have a size that is double the size of the preceding encrypted map extension 2118 within the payload section 2113 (e.g., double the size of the encrypted map extension 2118 that is the next one to be closer to the encrypted map base 2116, such that the encrypted map extension 2118 b may be double the size of the encrypted map extension 2118 a). As a result, of such a scheme of increasing sizes of the encrypted map extensions 2118 (or as a result of any of a variety of similar such schemes), the size of the encrypted map extensions 2118 from the closest to the furthest may grow exponentially. Where such a known and predictable pattern of increasing size in the encrypted map extensions 2118 is used, there may be no need to store an indication within the encrypted map base 2116 of the sizes of each of the encrypted map extensions 2118.

As previously discussed in reference to FIGS. 15A-B, and as again depicted in FIG. 15C, at a pre-selected location within the data file 2110 that is at or towards the starting end of the payload section 2113 (which, again, may be positioned towards the starting end 2112 of the data file 2110) may be a few bytes of storage space that stores the map block encryption data 2119 made up of encryption information that was used to encrypt the map base 2115 to generate the encrypted map base 2116. As also previously discussed, a control device 2500 may later retrieve the map block encryption data 2119 for use in decrypting the encrypted map base 2116. Again, the map block encryption data 2119 may be subjected to an XOR operation and/or other technique(s) before storage within the data file 2110 to cause the map block encryption data 2119 to become at least somewhat less recognizable as being such encryption information. Thus, upon being retrieved for use in decrypting the encrypted map base 2116, the map block encryption data 2119 may be subjected to a reversal of the XOR operation and/or other technique(s) before being so used.

As also previously discussed in reference to FIGS. 15A-B, and as also depicted in FIG. 15C, the metadata block encryption data 2339 made up of encryption information that was used to encrypt the metadata 2335 to generate the encrypted metadata 2336 may be stored at a predetermined location within the map base 2115 prior to encryption of the map base 2115 to generate the encrypted map base 2116. As also previously discussed, a control device 2500 may later retrieve the metadata encryption data 2339, following decryption of the encrypted map base 2116, to use the metadata encryption data 2339 to decrypt the encrypted metadata 2336.

As additionally depicted in FIG. 15C, the map block encryption data 2559 a made up of encryption information that was used to encrypt the map extension 2117 a to generate the encrypted map extension 2118 a (e.g., the one closest to the encrypted map base 2116 within the payload section 2113) may be stored within the map base 2115 prior to encryption of the map base 2115 to generate the map base 2116. Also, the map block encryption data 2559 b made up of encryption information that was used to encrypt the map extension 2117 b to generate the encrypted map extension 2118 b (e.g., the next one further away from the encrypted map base 2116) may be stored within the map extension 2117 a prior to encryption of the map extension 2117 a to generate the encrypted map extension 2118 a. Further, the map block encryption data 2559 c made up of encryption information that was used to encrypt the next map extension beyond the map extension 2117 b may be stored within the map extension 2117 b prior to encryption of the map extension 2117 b to generate the encrypted map extension 2118 b.

Thus, as depicted in FIG. 15C, and as previously discussed, the map block encryption data used in encrypting each block of the map data 2510 (except the map base 2115) may be stored within the preceding block of the map data 2510 (in an order that proceeds from closest to the encrypted map base 2116 to furthest from the encrypted map base 2116 within the payload section 2113) so as to be encrypted along with the portion of the map data 2510 that is within the preceding block. In this way a chain of nested encryption of the blocks of the map data 2510 is formed, such that decryption of all of the map data 2510 must start with decrypting the encrypted map base 2116 to obtain the map base 2115 using the map block encryption data 2119. The decrypting must then proceed to the decryption of the encrypted map extension 2118 a (e.g., the one closest to the encrypted map base 2116) to obtain the map extension 2117 a using the map block encryption data 2559 a. The decrypting must then continue to proceed, a block at a time of the map data 2510, by decrypting each subsequent encrypted map extension 2118 (e.g., each one that is the next further away from the encrypted map base 2116) to obtain each corresponding subsequent map extension 2117 using the map block encryption data 2559 retrieved through the decryption of the preceding encrypted map extension 2118. As may be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the formation of such a chain of nested encryption may add considerably to the difficulty of efforts that may be made to decrypt the encrypted data blocks 2131. Not only is the map data 2510, which is required to obtain the needed information of where each encrypted data block 2131 starts and ends within the data file 2110, but the formation of such a nested chain of encryption imposes a requirement that efforts to defeat the encryption of the map data 2510 must begin with the encrypted map base 2116, and must proceed in a particular order starting at the encrypted map base 2116 and proceeding through each encrypted map extension 2118, one at a time, and through one independent use of encryption after another.

FIGS. 16A and 16B, together, illustrate an example of an order of encryption to be followed in encrypting blocks of the map data 2510 for storage as encrypted blocks of the map data 2510 within the data file 2110 in embodiments in which encryption is used to cause the data set 2330 to be stored in encrypted form. FIG. 16A illustrates aspects of the order responsive to the map data 2510 not being divided into multiple blocks such that the map base 2115 is the only block of the map data 2510, and the map base 2115 is encrypted to generate the encrypted map base 2116 for storage within the data file 2110. FIG. 16B illustrates aspects of the order responsive to the map data 2510 being divided into multiple blocks such that the map base 2115 and the each of the multiple map extensions 2117 of the map data 2510 are encrypted to generate the encrypted map base 2116 and the multiple encrypted map extensions 2118, respectively, for storage within the data file 2110.

Referring to both FIGS. 16A and 16B, as recognizable to those skilled in the art, the control routines 2540 and 2740, including the components of which each is composed, are selected to be operative on whatever type of processor or processors that are selected to implement applicable ones of the processor components 2550 and/or 2750. In various embodiments, each of these routines may include one or more of an operating system, device drivers and/or application-level routines (e.g., so-called “software suites” provided on disc media, “applets” obtained from a remote server, etc.). Where an operating system is included, the operating system may be any of a variety of available operating systems appropriate for the processor components 2550 and/or 2750. Where one or more device drivers are included, those device drivers may provide support for any of a variety of other components, whether hardware or software components, of the node devices 2700 and/or the control device 2500 (or the controller 2507 incorporated into one of the node devices 2700).

As depicted, the control routine 2740 may include an encryption component 2742 to encrypt data set portions 2732. Correspondingly, the control routine 2540 may include an encryption component 2542 to encrypt blocks of the map data 2510 and/or the metadata 2335. In various embodiments of the distributed processing system 2000, and as previously discussed, any of a variety of encryption algorithms may be employed within the control device 2500 (if there is a control device 2500), the controller 2507 within one of the node devices 2700 (if there is such a controller 2507), and/or each of the node devices (if there are node devices 2700) to encrypt blocks of data of the data set 2330, the map data 2510 and/or the metadata 2335. However, in an example form of encryption depicted and discussed herein, a combination of an encryption pass phrase 2779 used throughout the encryption of all blocks associated with the data set 2330, a separate salt value that is separately generated for each such block that is so encrypted, and the size of each such block that is so encrypted are used as encryption inputs. More specifically, the salt value separately generated for each block and the pass phrase 2779 may be used to generate an encryption cipher that may be used along with the size of the block to encrypt the block.

The salt value is separately randomly generated each time encryption is performed to generate an encrypted data block 2131, the encrypted map base 2116, an encrypted map extension 2118 or the encrypted metadata 2336. Thus, through the use of random and/or pseudo-random generation hardware and/or software within the control device 2500 and/or each of the node devices 2700, it is intended that a unique salt value be generated for each block of the data set 2330 and related information that is encrypted such that it is at least highly unlikely that any two of such blocks that are encrypted and stored within the data file 2110 will have been encrypted using the same salt value.

The encryption pass phrase 2779 may include one or more bytes of any of a variety of types of data, including and not limited to, a numerical value, a portion of text, a combination thereof, etc. An important characteristic of the pass phrase 2779 may be that it is securely maintained among the control device 2500 and/or the node devices 2700 within the distributed processing system 2000 for use in performing encryption and decryption operations, and is never transmitted outside the distributed processing system 2000, and is never provided to the one or more storage devices 2100. Thus, the pass phrase 2779 may never be stored alongside or within the data file 2110 in which the encrypted blocks of the data set 2330 and related information are stored. In some embodiments, the pass phrase 2779 may be securely maintained by the control device 2500 or another device (not shown) of the distributed processing system 2000 in such a manner in which it is made available under controlled circumstances only while encryption or decryption operations are performed. As a result, the security of the data set 2330, as stored in encrypted form within the data file 2110, may be enhanced since any decryption of the data set 2330 requires the use of the control device 2500 and/or the node devices 2700, which have access to the pass phrase 2779, unlike other processing systems outside the distributed processing system 2000 that do not.

Turning more specifically to FIG. 16A, where the map data 2510 is not divided such that there is only the map base 2115 to be encrypted and stored (as depicted in FIGS. 14A-B), the performance of encryption by the distributed processing system 2000 as part of storing the data set 2330 may begin with the encryption of data blocks 2130 that may each be formed from one or more data set portions 2732 to form corresponding encrypted data blocks 2131. As previously discussed, and as will be discussed further in greater detail, if the data of the data set 2330 is not partitioned, then each data set portion 2732 that has been generated and/or processed by a node device 2700 or a processor core 2555 may be encrypted to generate a corresponding one of the encrypted data blocks 2131. However, if the data of the data set 2330 is partitioned, then one or more data set portions 2732 that have been generated and/or processed by a node device 2700 or a processor core 2555 may be encrypted together as one or more corresponding data sub-blocks 2133 to generate a single one of the encrypted data blocks 2131.

Regardless of whether the data of the data set 2330 is partitioned, as previously discussed, the encryption component 2742 may randomly generate a separate salt value for use in each performance of encryption to generate one of the encrypted data blocks 2131. The encryption component 2742 may then use the pass phrase 2779, along with the salt value, to generate an encryption cipher for use only in such a performance of encryption. Then, as also previously discussed, the encryption cipher may be used, along with the total size of the one or more data set portions 2732 that are to be included, to actually perform the encryption of those one or more data set portions 2732, together, as one or more data sub-blocks 2133 to generate the encrypted data block 2131 for storage within the data file 2110.

The encryption cipher just used in the performance of encryption to generate the encrypted data block 2131 may be discarded. However, at least the total size of the one or more data set portions 2732 and the separately generated salt value used in generating the encrypted data block 2131 may be stored together within the map base 2115 as a map entry 2511 that corresponds to the encrypted data block 2131. As depicted, at least the salt value may be stored as the data block encryption data 2519 within that map entry 2511.

Similar actions may be taken by the encryption component 2542 to encrypt the metadata 2335. The encryption component 2542 may randomly generate a separate salt value for use in a performance of encryption to generate the encrypted metadata 2336. The encryption component 2542 may then use the pass phrase 2779, along with the salt value, to generate an encryption cipher for use only in this performance of encryption. Then, the encryption cipher may be used along with the size of the metadata 2335 to actually perform the encryption of the metadata 2335 to generate the encrypted metadata 2336 for storage within the data file 2110.

The encryption cipher just used in the performance of encryption to generate the encrypted metadata 2336 may be discarded. However, at least the separately generated salt value used in generating the encrypted metadata 2336 may be stored within the map base 2115 as the metadata block encryption data 2339. In some embodiments, the metadata 2335 may be of a predefined size such that its size is known, and therefore, it may be deemed unnecessary to consume space within the map base 2115 (or any other part of the map data 2510) to store an explicit indication of the size of the encrypted metadata 2336. By way of example, it may be that a predetermined amount of storage space is always allocated to the metadata 2335 regardless of its actual size. However, if the size of the metadata 2335 is not known and/or predetermined such that it is variable, then an indication of the size of the encrypted metadata 2336 may be stored within the map base 2115 along with the metadata block encryption data 2339.

Once the map base 2115 includes all of the map entries 2511 and the metadata block encryption data 2339, again, similar actions may be taken by the encryption component 2542 to encrypt the map base 2115. The encryption component 2542 may randomly generate a separate salt value for use in a performance of encryption to generate the encrypted map base 2116. The encryption component 2542 may then use the pass phrase 2779, along with the salt value, to generate an encryption cipher for use only in this performance of encryption. Then, the encryption cipher may be used along with the size of the map base 2115 to actually perform the encryption of the map base 2115 to generate the encrypted map base 2116 for storage within the data file 2110.

The encryption cipher just used in the performance of encryption to generate the encrypted map base 2116 may be discarded. However, as previously discussed, at least the separately generated salt value used in generating the encrypted map base 2116 may be stored within a predetermined location within the data file 2110 as the map block encryption data 2119. Again, as also previously discussed, the map block encryption data 2119 may be subjected to an XOR operation before being so stored. In some embodiments, the map base 2115 may be of a predefined size such that its size is known, and therefore, it may be deemed unnecessary to consume space within the data file 2110 to store an indication of the size of the encrypted map base 2116. By way of example, it may be that a predetermined amount of storage space is always allocated to the map base 2115 regardless of its actual size (e.g., regardless of the size of the portion of the map data 2510 therein). However, if the size of the map data 2115 is not known and/or predetermined such that it is variable, then an indication of the size of the encrypted map data 2116 may be stored within the data file 2110 along with the map block encryption data 2119.

Turning more specifically to FIG. 16B, where the map data 2510 is divided into the map base 2115 and the multiple map extensions 2117 (as depicted in FIG. 14C), the performance of encryption by the distributed processing system 2000 to store the data set 2330 may also begin with the encryption of data blocks 2130 that may each be formed from one or more data set portions 2732 to form corresponding encrypted data blocks 2131. As previously discussed, where there are the multiple map extensions 2117, the map entries 2511 may be stored within the multiple map extensions 2117, and not within the map base 2115.

Again, regardless of whether the data of the data set 2330 is partitioned, the encryption component 2742 may randomly generate a separate salt value for use in performing encryption to generate each encrypted data block 2131. The encryption component 2742 may then use the pass phrase 2779, along with the salt value, to generate an encryption cipher for use only in this performance of encryption. Then, again, the encryption cipher may be used, along with the total size of the one or more data set portions 2732 that are to be included, to actually perform the encryption of those one or more data set portions 2732, together, as one or more data sub-blocks 2133 to generate the encrypted data block 2131 for storage within the data file 2110.

The encryption cipher just used in the performance of encryption to generate the encrypted data block 2131 may be discarded. However, at least the total size of the one or more data set portions 2732 and the separately generated salt value used in generating the encrypted data block 2131 may be stored together within one of the multiple map extensions 2117 (only one of which is depicted for sake of clarity) as a map entry 2511 that corresponds to the encrypted data block 2131. As depicted, at least the salt value may be stored as the data block encryption data 2519 within that map entry 2511.

Again, similar actions may be taken by the encryption component 2542 to encrypt the metadata 2335. However, for sake of clarity, the performance of encryption to generate the encrypted metadata 2336 from the metadata 2335, as well as the storage of the metadata block encryption data 2339 within the map base 2115, are not shown in FIG. 16B as these performances of encryption have already been shown in FIG. 16A.

Once the multiple map extensions 2117 include all of the map entries 2511, again, similar actions may be taken by the encryption component 2542 to encrypt each map extension 2117 to generate a corresponding encrypted map extension 2118, one at a time, and in an order that creates a chain of nested encryption among the resulting encrypted map extensions 2118. In some embodiments, the formation of such a chain of nested encryption may begin with the encryption of the map extension 2117 that includes the most recently generated map entries 2511 such that its corresponding encrypted map extension 2118 is to be positioned furthest from the encrypted map base 2116 in the payload section. The formation of such a chain of nested encryption may then proceed, one map extension 2117 at a time, and toward the map extension 2117 that includes the earliest generated map entries 2511 such that its corresponding encrypted map extension 2118 is to be positioned closest to the encrypted map base 2116 within the payload section 2113. The formation of such a chain of nested encryption may then end with encryption of the map base 2115 to generate the encrypted map base 2116, which as previously discussed, may be positioned toward a starting end of the payload section 2113 (e.g., toward the starting end 2112 of the data file 2110). As previously discussed, as each map extension 2117 is encrypted in such an order (best shown in FIG. 14C), the map block encryption data 2559 generated from its encryption is stored within the next one of the map extensions 2117 that is to be encrypted, with the exception that the map block encryption data 2559 generated from the encryption of the map extension 2117 that includes the earliest map entries 2511 (such that its encryption generates the encrypted map extension 2118 that is closest to the encrypted map base 2116) is stored within the map base 2115 prior to the encryption of the map base 2115 to generate the encrypted map base 2116. Thus, in this way, and as previously discussed, the resulting chain of nested encryption is formed among the multiple map extensions 2117 and the map base 2115, and extends from the resulting encrypted map base 2116, to the one of the encrypted map extensions 2118 that is furthest from the encrypted map base 2116, and through the intervening ones of the encrypted map extensions 2118 in the order of their relative proximities to the encrypted map base 2116.

In so doing, the encryption component 2542 may randomly generate a separate salt value for use in a performance of encryption to generate each encrypted map extension 2118. The encryption component 2542 may then use the pass phrase 2779, along with the salt value, to generate an encryption cipher for use only in this performance of encryption. Then, the encryption cipher may be used along with the size of the map extension 2117 to actually perform the encryption of the map extension 2117 to generate the encrypted map extension 2118 for storage within the data file 2110.

Thus, the encryption cipher used in each performance of encryption to generate each one of the encrypted map extensions 2118 may be discarded. However, at least the separately generated salt value used in generating each encrypted map extension 2118 may be stored as map block encryption data 2559 within the next map extension 2117 to be encrypted (e.g., stored within the map extension 2117 from which the next closest encrypted map extension 2118 to the encrypted map base 2116 will be generated) The one exception may be the separately generated salt value used in generating the encrypted map extension 2118 that will be the closest one to the encrypted map base 2116, where the separately generated salt value may be stored as map block encryption data 2559 within the map base 2115 (prior to encryption of the map base 2115). In some embodiments, each of the map extensions 2117 may be of a predefined size such as the predetermined exponentially increasing sizes previously discussed. As a result, it may be deemed unnecessary to consume space within the map base 2115 or anywhere else within the data file 2110 to store an indication of the size of each of the encrypted map extensions 2118. However, if the size of one or more of the map extensions 2117 is not known and/or predetermined such that it is variable, then an indication of the size of its corresponding encrypted map extension 2118 may be stored within the next one of the map extensions 2117 to be encrypted and/or within the map base 2115.

The encryption of the map base 2115 may be performed in much the same manner as was discussed in reference to FIG. 16A.

What follows are numerous figures that present various examples and aspects of the grouping of portions of a data set 2330 into segments 2230 to accommodate various restrictions that may be imposed by the one or more storage devices 2100 on the transfer of data thereto for storage. It should be noted that these various examples are deliberately simplified examples involving a relatively small data set 2330 that is divided into relatively few portions among relatively few node devices 2700 so as to better enable understanding, and should not be taken as limiting. It is envisioned that actual implementations of such grouping of portions of a data set 2330 are likely to involve considerably larger data sets 2330 divided into a considerably larger quantity of portions among a considerably larger quantity of node devices 2700. It should also be noted that, although these various examples each depict the grouping of encrypted data blocks 2131 of data that is to be stored in encrypted form, other embodiments are possible in which it is data blocks 2130 that are grouped as part of storing data in unencrypted form.

Again, as recognizable to those skilled in the art, the control routines 2540 and 2740, including the components of which each is composed, are selected to be operative on whatever type of processor or processors that are selected to implement applicable ones of the processor components 2550 and/or 2750. In various embodiments, each of these routines may include one or more of an operating system, device drivers and/or application-level routines (e.g., so-called “software suites” provided on disc media, “applets” obtained from a remote server, etc.). Where an operating system is included, the operating system may be any of a variety of available operating systems appropriate for the processor components 2550 and/or 2750. Where one or more device drivers are included, those device drivers may provide support for any of a variety of other components, whether hardware or software components, of the node devices 2700 and/or the control device 2500 (or the controller 2507 incorporated into one of the node devices 2700).

Each of FIGS. 17A and 17B illustrates aspects of the manner in which one or more segments 2230 may be formed as part of storing a portion of the data set 2330 in compliance with one or more restrictions that may be imposed by the one or more storage devices 2100. FIG. 17A illustrates aspects of the maintenance of an order among portions of the data set 2330 and its associated map data 2510 and metadata 2335 where the associated map data 2510 (as the encrypted map base 2116) and encrypted metadata 2336 (the encrypted form of the metadata 2335) are combined with at least one portion of the data set 2330 to form a segment 2230. FIG. 17B illustrates aspects of the maintenance of an order among portions of the data set 2330 and its associated map data 2510 and metadata 2335 where the associated map data 2510 (as the encrypted map base 2116 and encrypted map extensions 2118) and the encrypted metadata 236 are combined to form a separate segment 2230.

Referring to both FIGS. 17A and 17B, the control routine 2540 may include a grouping component 2746 to perform the formation of segments 2230, and/or a persisting component 2741 to effect storage of one or more segments 2230. Correspondingly, the control routine 2540 may include a grouping component 2546 to coordinate and/or to also perform the formation of segments 2230, and/or a mapping component 2541 to generate and/or to effect storage of the map data 2510 and/or the metadata 2335 within a segment 2230.

FIG. 17A depicts an example of interactions among a control device 2500 and two node devices 2700-1 and 2700-2 to form a single segment 2230. It should be noted that the depicted control device 2500 and two node devices 2700-1 and 2700-2 may be but a portion of a larger set of computing devices involved in the storage of a data set 2330 that may include at least many more node devices 2700 than the two node devices 2700 that are shown.

As depicted, at least enough progress may have been made toward storing the data set 2330 that the two depicted node devices 2700-1 and 2700-2 have each been assigned a node device identifier “1” and “2”, respectively. As has been discussed, the node device identifiers assigned to node devices 2700 that are to be involved in the grouping of portions of a data set may be selected to form a series of numeric values that define an order among those node devices 2700, such as a 0-based or 1-based ascending series of positive integer values that are incremented by the value of 1. Again, there may be many more node devices 2700 that are not depicted, and those may be assigned node device identifiers of “3”, “4”, “5” and so on.

The progress made toward storing the data set 2330 may further include the depicted encrypted data block 2131-1 having been generated within the node device 2700-1, the depicted encrypted data block 2131-2 having been generated within the node device 2700-2, and a combination of the map block encryption data 2119, the encrypted map base 2116 and the encrypted map metadata 2336 having been generated within the control device 2500. At this stage, the grouping component 2546 may request indications of the total size of all of the encrypted data blocks 2131 that each node device 2700 currently has for storage, and the grouping component 2746 within each of the node devices 2700, including the node devices 2700-1 and 2700-2, may respond by transmitting an indication of such a total size back to the control device 2500.

Upon analyzing the total sizes received from each of the node devices 2700, the grouping component 2546 may determine that at least the encrypted data block 2131-1 is not large enough, by itself, to meet a minimum threshold size imposed by the one or more storage devices 2100 for the formation of a segment 2230, but that the combination encrypted data blocks 2131-1 and 2131-2 would be large enough. In response to this determination, the grouping component 2546 may instruct the node device 2700-1 to serve as a source node device to provide the encrypted data block 2131-1 to the node device 2700-2 as the target node device to enable the node device 2700-2 to so combine the encrypted data blocks 2131-1 and 2131-2.

Also, upon analyzing the combined size of the map block encryption data 2119, the encrypted map base 2116 and the encrypted metadata 2336, the grouping component 2546 may determine that this combined size is also not large enough to meet the minimum threshold size for the formation of a separate segment 2230. In response to this determination, the grouping component 2546 may transmit the combination of the map block encryption data 2119, the encrypted map base 2116 and the encrypted metadata 2336 also to the node device 2700-2 to also be combined with the encrypted data block 2131-2.

Having received the encrypted data block 2131-1, and the combination of the map block encryption data 2119, the encrypted map base 2116 and the encrypted metadata 2336, the grouping component 2746 of the node device 2700-2 may combine these items with the encrypted data block 2131-2 to form one or more segments 2230. In so doing, the grouping component 2746 of the node device 2700-2 may determine whether the combination of these items will result in a segment 2230 that is larger than a maximum threshold size that may be imposed by the one or more storage devices 2100. Upon determining that the combination of these items will not result in a segment 2230 that exceeds the maximum threshold size, the grouping component 2746 of the node device 2700-2 may then combine these items to generate the depicted segment 2230-C12.

The persisting component 2741 of the node device 2700-2 may then transmit the segment 2230-C12 to the one or more storage devices 2100 for storage as part of the depicted data file 2110. In forming the segment 2230-C12, the grouping component 2746 of the node device 2700-2 may organize all five of these items within the segment 2230-C12 in an order that places these five items within the payload section 2113 of the data file 2110 in an order similar to what has been described and depicted in reference to FIG. 15A. Specifically, the map block encryption data 2119 is positioned closest to the start of the payload section 2113, followed (in an order that extends away from the start of the payload section 2113) by the encrypted map base 2116, the encrypted metadata 2336, and the encrypted data blocks 2131-1 and 2131-2.

FIG. 17B depicts an example of interactions among a control device 2500 and a single node device 2700-1 to form multiple segments 2230. It should be noted that the depicted control device 2500 and single node device 2700-1 may be but a portion of a larger set of computing devices involved in the storage of a data set 2330 that may include at least many more node devices 2700 than the single node device 2700 that is shown.

Again, at least enough progress may have been made toward storing the data set 2330 that the depicted node device 2700-1 (along with other node devices 2700, not shown) has been assigned a node device identifier “1”. Again, there may be many more node devices 2700 that are not depicted, and those may be assigned node device identifiers of “2”, “3”, “4” and so on.

As was the situation depicted in FIG. 17A, in FIG. 17B, the progress made toward storing the data set 2330 may further include the depicted encrypted data block 2131-1 having been generated within the node device 2700-1, and a combination of the map block encryption data 2119, the encrypted map base 2116, multiple encrypted map extensions 2118 and the encrypted map metadata 2336 having been generated within the control device 2500. At this stage, the grouping component 2546 may request indications of the total size of all of the encrypted data blocks 2131 that each node device 2700 currently has for storage, and the grouping component 2746 within each of the node devices 2700, including the node device 2700-1, may respond by transmitting an indication of such a total size back to the control device 2500.

Upon analyzing the total sizes received from each of the node devices 2700, the grouping component 2546 may determine that at least the encrypted data block 2131-1 is large enough, by itself, to meet a minimum threshold size imposed by the one or more storage devices 2100 for the formation of a segment 2230. In response to this determination, the grouping component 2546 may refrain from sending the node device 2700-1 any instruction to serve as a source node device to provide the encrypted data block 2131-1 to another node device. Further, since the node device 2700-1 is the first node device 2700 in the ordering of node devices 2700 defined by the node device identifiers that have been provided to the node devices 2700 (including the node device 2700-1), the grouping component 2546 may also refrain from sending the node device 2700-1 any instruction to serve as a target node device to receive any encrypted data blocks 2131 from any other node device 2700.

Also, upon analyzing the combined size of the map block encryption data 2119, the encrypted map base 2116, the multiple encrypted map extensions 2118 and the encrypted metadata 2336, the grouping component 2546 may determine that this combined size is large enough, without being combined with any encrypted data block 2131, to meet the minimum threshold size for the formation of a separate segment 2230. In response to this determination, the grouping component 2546 may also refrain from transmitting any of the map block encryption data 2119, the encrypted map base 2116, the multiple encrypted map extensions 2118 and the encrypted metadata 2336 to the node device 2700-1.

Having not been provided with any other encrypted data blocks 2131 or other items to combine with the encrypted data block 2131-1, the grouping component 2746 of the node device 2700-1 may determine whether the single encrypted data block 2131-1 will result in a segment 2230 that is larger than a maximum threshold size that may be imposed by the one or more storage devices 2100. Upon determining that the single encrypted data block 2131-1 will result in a segment that exceeds the maximum threshold size, the grouping component 2746 of the node device 2700-1 may split the encrypted data block 2131-1 into two portions used to form the depicted segments 2230-1 a and 2230-1 b that are each of a size that fits between the minimum and maximum threshold sizes.

The grouping component 2546 of the control device 2500 may, at least partially in parallel, similarly determine whether the combination of the map block encryption data 2119, the encrypted map base 2116, the multiple encrypted map extensions 2118 and the encrypted metadata 2336 will result in a segment 2230 that is larger than the maximum threshold size that may be imposed by the one or more storage devices 2100. Upon determining that the combination of these items will not result in a segment 2230 that exceeds the maximum threshold size, the grouping component 2546 may then combine these items to generate the depicted segment 2230-C.

The mapping component 2541 of the control device 2500 and at least the persisting component 2741 of the node device 2700-1 may transmit their respective ones of the segments 2230-C, 2230-1 a and 2230-1 b, at least partially in parallel, to the one or more storage devices for storage as part of the depicted data file 2110. As will be explained in greater detail, the grouping component 2546 of the control device 2500 and the grouping component 2746 of at least the node device 2700-1 may cooperate with each other to provide indications to the one or more storage devices of the correct ordering of the segments 2230-C, 2230-1 a and 2230-1 b in order to cause the contents of each to be arranged in correct order within the payload section 2113 of the data file 2110 (e.g., an order similar to what has been described and depicted in reference to FIG. 15C). The manner in which such information is provided to the one or more storage devices 2100 may, for example, entail the use of pointers to explicitly indicate the relative positions of each of these segments within the payload section 2113, or may, for example, entail the formation and transmission of a data structure (e.g., a vector) that sets forth the order of these segments within the payload using segment identifiers.

FIGS. 18A through 18H, together, illustrate an example embodiment of storing a data set 2330 within one or more storage devices 2100 where at least a minimum threshold size is imposed on the transmission of units of data of the data set 2330 to the one or more storage devices 2100. FIGS. 18A-E, together, illustrate aspects of the exchange of encrypted data blocks 2131 and/or detailed information concerning the data set 2330 in support of forming one or more segments 2230. Each of FIGS. 18F and 18G illustrates aspects of the generation and transmission of segments 2230 within a node device 2700. FIG. 18H illustrates aspects of coordinating the arrangement of the contents of the payload section 2113 of the stored data file 2110 with the one or more storage devices 2100.

Turning to FIG. 18A, at least a control device 2500 and a subset of three node devices 2700-1 to 2700-3 may have cooperated to perform one or more tasks at least partially in parallel to generate the depicted encrypted data block 2131-1 within the node device 2700-1 and the depicted encrypted data block 2131-2 within the node device 2700-2. As depicted each of the node devices 2700-1, 2700-2 and 2700-3 has been assigned a node device identifier “1”, “2” and “3”, respectively, such that the assigned node device identifiers form an uninterrupted 1-based ascending series of positive integer values. Again, this is a simplified example in which the depicted encrypted data blocks 2131-1 and 2131-2 make up the entirety of a data set 2330, and the depicted node devices 2700-1 to 2700-3 are the complete set of node devices 2700. This example presented herein for purposes of understanding, and should not be taken as limiting the applicability of what is claimed herein to such a small data set 2330 or such a small quantity of node devices 2700. Again, it is envisioned that actual implementations would likely involve considerably larger data sets 2330 divided into a considerably larger quantity of portions (leading to a considerably larger quantity of encrypted data blocks 2131) among a considerably larger quantity of node devices 2700.

With the one or more tasks complete, the control device 2500 may transmit a request via a network 2999 to each of the node devices 2700-1 to 2700-3 to provide indications of the total size of the blocks of data that each has for storage. In response, each of the node devices 2700-1 to 2700-3 may provide such indications via the network 2999 to the control device 2500. The control device 2500 may organize each of these indications of total size within a total sizes vector 2211 or other data structure that maintains an ordering among the indications of total size that corresponds to the ordering among the node devices 2700-1 to 2700-3 that is defined by the node device identifiers.

The control device 2500 employs the indications of total size within the total sizes vector and the ordering among the node devices 2700-1 to 2700-3 defined by the node device identifiers to derive a set of block exchanges (e.g., exchanges of encrypted data blocks 2131 in this example) among the node devices 2700-1 to 2700-3 to group the encrypted data blocks 2131 within a subset of the node devices 2700 to enable segments 2230 to be generated that will fit within one or more restrictions imposed on the transmission of the data set 2330 to the one or more storage devices 2100. As will be explained in greater detail, in deriving the set of block exchanges, the control device 2500 may employ a rule in which all block exchanges of the set of block exchanges are to proceed in a direction from the lowest-order node device 2700 (e.g., the node device 2700 with the lowest-order node device identifier, such as the depicted node device 2700-1) and toward the highest-order node device 2700 (e.g., the node device 2700 with the highest-order node device identifier, such as the depicted node device 2700-3). The control device 2500 may store indications of the derived set of block exchanges within a block exchange vector 2212 (or other data structure) that expresses the set of block exchanges in a manner that follows the ordering among the node devices 2700-1 to 2700-3.

Turning to FIG. 18B, the control device 2500 may transmit instructions via the network 2999 to one or more of the node devices 2700-1 to 2700-3 to cause the set of block exchanges to be performed. In some embodiments, the control device 2500 may identify node devices 2700 that do not have any blocks of data to be stored, and may refrain from communicating any further with such node devices 2700 concerning operations associated with the grouping of blocks of data, including any set of block exchanges. Thus, as depicted, the node device 2700-3 may not receive any instruction from the control device 2500 concerning the set of block exchanges.

Among the devices 2700 that are to be involved in set of block exchanges, in some embodiments, the control device 2500 may limit the transmission of instructions for performing the set of block exchanges to the node devices 2700 that serve as source node devices that will each transmit one or more encrypted data blocks 2131 to another node device 2700 that serves as a target node device. In other embodiments, the control device 2500 may, instead, limit the transmission of instructions for performing the set of block exchanges to the node devices 2700 that serve as the target node devices that will each receive one or more encrypted data blocks 2131 from one or more other node devices 2700 that serve as a source node device. In such other embodiments, each of such target node devices 2700 may then transmit a request to the one or more source node devices 2700 from which one or more encrypted data blocks 2131 are to be received to proceed with providing those one or more encrypted data blocks 2131.

Regardless of exactly which node devices 2700 are to receive the instructions for performing the set of block exchanges from the control device 2500, in some embodiments, the instructions may include the block exchange vector 2212. In such embodiments, each of the node devices 2700 that receive the block exchange vector 2212 may analyze the block exchange vector 2212 in view of the node device identifier that has been assigned to it to determine what operations it is to perform (if any) as part of the set of block exchanges.

Turning to FIG. 18C, at least the ones of the node devices 2700-1 to 2700-3 that are involved in performing the set of block exchanges may cooperate to so perform the set of block exchanges thereamong through the network 2999. As depicted, since only the node devices 2700-1 and 2700-2 are involved in the set of block exchanges in this example, the single exchange of the set of block exchanges is performed between the node devices 2700-1 and 2700-2 as the node device 2700-1 provides the encrypted data block 2131-1 to the node device 2700-2 through the network 2999. Upon completion of this single exchange of the encrypted data block 2131-1, either or both of the node devices 2700-1 and 2700-2 may transmit an indication of completion of this particular exchange to the control device 2500 via the network 2999.

As also depicted, upon receiving the encrypted data block 2131-1, the node device 2700-2 may maintain the ordering between the encrypted data blocks 2131-1 and 2131-2 therein as part of maintaining the ordering of these encrypted data blocks that was originally defined through the ordering of the node devices 2700-1 to 2700-3 through the assignment of the node device identifiers “1” through “3”. As will shortly be explained, this same ordering is also meant to be maintained in the manner in which these encrypted data blocks are to be organized within the payload section 2113 of the data file 2110 within the one or more storage devices 2100.

Turning to FIG. 18D, with the set of block exchanges having been performed, the control device 2500 may transmit instructions to at least the node devices 2700 that now have blocks of data following the set of block exchanges for each to provide detailed information via the network 2999 for the blocks of data that each has for storage as part of a registration of the blocks of data (whether encrypted, or not) that are to be stored. As a result of the performance of the set of block exchanges depicted in FIG. 18C, the node device 2700-2 is the single one of the node devices 2700-1 to 2700-3 that now has blocks of data for storage (e.g., the depicted encrypted data blocks 2131-1 and 2131-2) within the one or more storage devices 2100. The detailed information that is to be provided may include the information needed to generate map entries 2511 within the map data 2510 for all of the blocks of data that are to be stored within the one or more storage devices 2100. Thus, in embodiments in which the data is non-partitioned data, the detailed information so provided may include a combination of the data block size and/or the data block encryption data 2519 for each of the encrypted data blocks 2131-1 and 2131-2. Alternatively, in embodiments in which the data is partitioned data, the detailed information so provided may include a combination of the data block size, the data block encryption data 2519 and the data sub-block count for each of the encrypted data blocks 2131-1 and 2131-2, along with the sub-block size and the hashed identifier for each data sub-block 2133 that is included within each of the encrypted data blocks 2131-1 and 2131-2.

The node device 2700-2 may provide such detailed information to the control device 2500 in an order that preserves the ordering among the encrypted data blocks 2131-1 and 2131-2 that corresponds to the ordering among the node devices 2700-1 to 2700-3. Thus, the node device 2700-2 may first provide such detailed information for the encrypted data block 2131-1, followed by such detailed information for the encrypted data block 2131-2. Such ordered transmission of such detailed information to the control device 2500 may be intended to enable the control device 2500 to more easily generate the map entries 2511 within the map data 2510 in an order that corresponds to the ordering of the encrypted data blocks 2131-1 and 2131-2, which is meant to correspond to the ordering among the node devices 2700-1 to 2700-3. As depicted, the resulting map data may have been sufficiently small in size as to not necessitate being divided into both an encrypted map base 2116 and multiple encrypted map extensions 2118.

Turning to FIG. 18E, with the map data 2510 having been generated based on such registration of the encrypted data blocks 2131-1 and 2131-2, the control device 2500 may determine whether the size of the resulting depicted combination of the map block encryption data 2119, the encrypted map base 2116 and the encrypted metadata 2336 is sufficiently large, by itself, as to enable the formation of a segment 2230 that would meet a minimum threshold size that may be imposed on units of data that may be transmitted to the one or more storage devices 2100. Upon determining that the size of this combination of items is not sufficiently large, the control device 2500 may transmit this combination of items to the node device 2700-2 to be combined with at least one block of data to form a larger segment 2230.

In some embodiments, in selecting which node device 2700 to transmit such a combination of information to, the control device 2500 may select the lowest order node device 2700 that has one or more blocks of data to be stored as a result of the performance of the set of block exchanges. In this depicted example, the node device 2700-2 is the sole node device 2700 that now has blocks of data to be stored following the performance of the set of block exchanges. This approach to selecting a node device to provide such a combination of information to may be intended to aid in achieving the ordering of the contents of the payload section 2113 depicted in FIGS. 15A-C in which the map block encryption data 2119 is to be positioned closest to the end of the payload section 2113 that is closest to the starting end 2112 of the data file 2110, followed within the payload section 2113 by the encrypted map base 2116, the encrypted metadata 2336, any encrypted map extensions 2118 (of which there are none in this example), and then the encrypted data blocks 2131, with the encrypted data blocks 2131 maintained in the order that corresponds to the ordering defined among the node devices 2700 by the node device identifiers assigned to each.

FIGS. 18F and 18G depict two alternative situations regarding the generation of one or more segments 2230 by the node device 2700-2. Turning to FIG. 18F, as depicted, the total size of the combination of the map block encryption data 2119, the encrypted map base 2116, the encrypted metadata 2336, and the encrypted data blocks 2131-1 and 2131-2 is not large enough to meet the minimum threshold size imposed on units of data that may be transmitted to the one or more storage devices 2100. In some embodiments, it may be that the imposition of the minimum threshold size is such that an exception is allowed for one of the units of data out of a set of units of data belonging to a data set to be smaller than the minimum threshold size to avoid imposing a need to pad at least one of those units. In such embodiments, it may be permitted for the node device 2700-2 to proceed with forming a segment 2230 from this combination of these items, and transmitting the segment 2230 to the one or more storage devices 2100 for storage.

However, in other embodiments, it may be that the imposition of the minimum threshold size is such that no such exceptions are allowed. In such other embodiments, the node device 2700-2 may include some amount of padding within the segment 2230 to increase the size of the segment 2230 to meet the minimum threshold size. In so doing, the node device 2700-2 may organize the contents of the segment 2230 to position such padding after all of the other items as an approach to ensuring that the padding is caused to be positioned within the payload section 2113 at a location that follows all of the blocks of data therein, as depicted.

With the single segment 2230 so generated (either with or without such padding), the node device 2700-2 may transmit the single segment 2230 via the network 2999 to the one or more storage devices.

Alternatively, and turning to FIG. 18G, as depicted, the total size of the combination of the map block encryption data 2119, the encrypted map base 2116, the encrypted metadata 2336, and the encrypted data blocks 2131-1 and 2131-2 may be larger than a maximum threshold size imposed on units of data that may be transmitted to the one or more storage devices 2100. In response to this situation, the node device 2700-2 may form multiple segments 2230 (e.g., the depicted pair of segments 2230-1 and 2230-2) with this combination of these items divided thereamong. In some embodiments, such a division of these items, such as the encrypted data blocks 2131-1 and 2131-2, may be performed in a manner that avoids dividing any block of data (whether encrypted, or not) among two or more segments 2230, as depicted. However, depending on the size of each block of data, the division of a single block of data among multiple segments 2230 may not be avoidable.

Regardless of the exact manner in which items, such as blocks of data, are divided up among the multiple segments 2230-1 and 2230-2, the node device 2700-2 may organize the items within each of the segments 2230-1 and 2230-2 in a manner that serves to enable their intended ordering within the payload section 2113 of the data file 2110, as earlier described. As also depicted, again, there may be a need to include an amount of padding within one of the segments 2230 in embodiments in which the minimum threshold size is imposed without any exceptions. Again, the node device 2700-2 may organize the contents of the segment 2230-2 to ensure that the padding is caused to be positioned within the payload section 2113 after all of the blocks of data therein,

With the depicted pair of segments 2230-1 and 2203-2 so generated, the node device 2700-2 may transmit the segments 2230-1 and 2230-2 via the network 2999 to the one or more storage devices.

Turning to FIG. 18H, regardless of how many segments 2230 were generated and transmitted by the node device 2230-2 in either FIG. 18F or 18G to the one or more storage devices 2100, the one or more storage devices 2100 may transmit a separate acknowledgement of receipt for each one of the segments 2230 that are received. It may be that one or more storage devices 2100 transmit each such acknowledgement of receipt back to the particular device from which the corresponding segment 2230 was received. Thus, since in this example, it is the node device 2700-2 that transmits all of the segments 2230 to the one or more storage devices 2100, it may be that the one or more storage devices 2100 transmit each of the corresponding acknowledgement back to the node device 2700-2 via the network 2999.

In some embodiments, each such acknowledgement may include a segment identifier for the corresponding segment, and each such segment identifier may be generated by the one or more storage devices 2100. As depicted, the node device 2700-2 may relay each such received segment identifier to the control device 2500 via the network 2999. In so doing, the node device 2700-2 may provide an indication of which segment identifier corresponds to which segment 2230 that was transmitted by the node device 2700-2 (at least if there was more than one segment 2230 so transmitted). Alternatively, the node device 2700-2 may provide all of the segment identifiers it receives to the control device 2500 as a set that is organized into an ordering that follows the ordering of the segments 2230, which as has been discussed, is an ordering based on the intended relative positions of the contents of the segments 2230 within the payload section 2113, which as has also been discussed, is an ordering that is at least partially based on the ordering among the node devices 2700 defined by the node device identifiers 2700 assigned thereto.

Regardless of the exact manner in which the ordering of segment identifiers is communicated to the control device 2500, the control device 2500 may organize the segment identifiers within a segment identity vector 2216 or other data structure that maintains an ordering among the segment identifiers that corresponds to the ordering among the segments 2230 (at least if there was more than one segment 2230 transmitted) that is needed to achieve the earlier discussed intended ordering of the contents of the payload section 2113.

With the segment identity vector 2216 fully generated, the control device 2500 may then transmit the segment identity vector 2216 to the one or more storage devices 2100 to provide the one or more storage devices 2100 with an indication of how the contents of the segments 2230 (again, if there was more than one segment 2230) are to be organized within the payload section 2113 so as to cause such organization thereof to be effected.

FIGS. 19A through 19H, together, illustrate another example embodiment of storing a data set 2330 within one or more storage devices 2100 where at least a minimum threshold size is imposed on the transmission of units of data of the data set 2330 to the one or more storage devices 2100. FIGS. 19A-F, together, illustrate aspects of the exchange of encrypted data blocks 2131 and/or detailed information concerning the data set 2330 in support of forming one or more segments 2230. FIG. 19G illustrates aspects of the generation and transmission of multiple segments 2230. FIG. 19H illustrates aspects of coordinating the arrangement of the contents of the payload section 2113 of the stored data file 2110 with the one or more storage devices 2100.

Turning to FIG. 19A, at least a control device 2500 and a subset of eight node devices 2700-1 to 2700-8 may have cooperated to perform one or more tasks at least partially in parallel to generate the depicted set of multiple encrypted data blocks 2131 of a data set 2330, including a 3 MB encrypted data block 2131-2 within the node device 2700-2, a pair of encrypted data blocks 2131-3 a and 2131-3 b of that total 7 GB in size within the node device 2700-3, a 2.5 MB encrypted data block 2131-4 within the node device 2700-4, a 4 MB encrypted data block 2131-6 within the node device 2700-4, an 8 GB encrypted data block 2131-7 within the node device 2700-7, and a 2 MB encrypted data block 2131-8 within the node device 2700-8.

As depicted each of the node devices 2700-1 through 2700-8 has been assigned a node device identifier “1” through “8”, respectively, such that the assigned node device identifiers form an uninterrupted 1-based ascending series of positive integer values. Again, this is a simplified example in which the depicted encrypted data blocks 2131 make up the entirety of a data set 2330, and the depicted node devices 2700-1 through 2700-8 are the complete set of node devices 2700. This example presented herein for purposes of understanding, and should not be taken as limiting the applicability of what is claimed herein to such a small data set 2330 or such a small quantity of node devices 2700.

With the one or more tasks complete, the control device 2500 may transmit a request via a network 2999 to each of the node devices 2700-1 to 2700-8 to provide indications of the total size of the blocks of data that each has for storage. In response, each of the node devices 2700-1 to 2700-8 may provide such indications via the network 2999 to the control device 2500.

As depicted in FIG. 19B, the control device 2500 may organize each of these indications of total size within a total sizes vector 2211 or other data structure that maintains an ordering among the indications of total size that corresponds to the ordering among the node devices 2700-1 to 2700-8 that is defined by the node device identifiers. The control device 2500 may employ the indications of total size within the total sizes vector 2211 and the ordering among the node devices 2700-1 through 2700-8 defined by the node device identifiers (and reflected in the total sizes vector 2211) to derive a set of block exchanges (e.g., exchanges of encrypted data blocks 2131 in this example) among the node devices 2700-1 through 2700-8 to group the encrypted data blocks 2131 within a subset of the node devices 2700-1 through 2700-8 to enable segments 2230 to be generated that will fit within one or more restrictions imposed on the transmission of the data set 2330 to the one or more storage devices 2100. As depicted, with a minimum threshold size of 5 MB being imposed, the total size of the blocks of data within each of the node devices 2700-2, 2700-4, 2700-6 and 2700-8 are each smaller than the minimum threshold size. Also, with a maximum threshold size of 5 GB being imposed, the total size of the blocks of data within each of the node devices 2700-3 and 2700-7 are each larger than the maximum threshold size.

In deriving the set of block exchanges, the control device 2500 may employ a rule in which all block exchanges of the set of block exchanges are to proceed in a direction from the lowest-order node device 2700 (e.g., the node device 2700-1) and toward the highest-order node device 2700 (e.g., the node device 2700-8) based on what total sizes meet the 5 MB minimum threshold size, and while minimizing the number of exchanges between node devices 2700. Also in deriving the set of block exchanges, the control device 2500 may proceed through the total sizes vector 2211 from the lowest-order node device 2700-1 to the highest-order node device 2700-8.

Thus, starting with the node device 2700-1, since the reported total size thereof is 0 bytes, the control device 2500 may simply refrain from including the node device 2700-1 in any block exchange.

Proceeding to the node device 2700-2, since the reported total size thereof is 3 MB, which does not meet the 5 MB minimum threshold size, the control device 2500 may then proceed to the node device 2700-3 to determine whether combining the total sizes of the node devices 2700-2 and 2700-3 will beget a new total size that at least meets the minimum threshold size of 5 MB. Since the total size of 7 GB within the node device 2700-3 already more than meets the 5 MB minimum threshold size, the combination of the 3 MB within the node device 2700-2 and the 7 GB within the node device 2700-3 will also meet this minimum threshold size, and so the control device 2500 may determine that the node device 2700-2 should transfer its block(s) of data to the node device 2700-3.

Proceeding to the node device 2700-4, since the reported total size thereof is 2.5 MB, which does not meet the 5 MB minimum threshold size, the control device 2500 may then proceed to the node device 2700-5 to determine whether combining the total sizes of the node devices 2700-4 and 2700-5 will beget a new total size that at least meets the minimum threshold size of 5 MB. Since the addition of the total size of 0 bytes within the node device 2700-5 will not beget such a new total size, the control device 2500 may then proceed further to the node device 2700-6 to determine whether combining the total sizes of the node devices 2700-4, 2700-5 and 2700-6 will beget a new total size that at least meets the minimum threshold size of 5 MB.

Since the addition of the total size of 4 MB within the node device 2700-6 to the 0 bytes within the node device 2700-5 and the 2.5 MB within the node device 2700-4 will beget such a new total size, the control device 2500 may determine that the node devices 2700-4 and 2700-5 should each transfer their block(s) of data to the node device 2700-6.

Proceeding to the node device 2700-7, since the reported total size thereof is 8 GB, which already more than meets the 5 MB minimum threshold size, the control device 2500 may determine that the node device 2700-7 need not be involved in any exchange of blocks of data in the set of exchanges.

Proceeding to the node device 2700-8, since the reported total size thereof is 2 MB, which does not meet the 5 MB minimum threshold size, the control device 2500 may then proceed to the next higher-order node device 2700, except that the node device 2700-8 is the highest-order node device 2700. Therefore, in keeping with the rule in which all block exchanges of the set of block exchanges are to proceed in a direction from the lowest-order node device (e.g., the node device 2700-1) and toward the highest-order node device 2700 (e.g., the node device 2700-8), the control device may determine that the node device 2700-8 is not to be involved in any exchange of blocks of data in the set of exchanges.

Regardless of the exact rules by which the set of block exchanges may be derived, the control device 2500 may store indications of the set of block exchanges within a block exchange vector 2212 (or other data structure) that expresses the set of block exchanges in a manner that follows the ordering among the node devices 2700-1 to 2700-8, as depicted. More specifically, and as depicted, the control device may employ negative quantities of data to indicate node devices 2700 that serve as source node devices that are each to transfer block(s) of data to another node device 2700 that is indicated by a positive quantity of data to be a target node device. Thus, with a matched set of indications of “3 MB” and “−3 MB” quantities of data, the node device 2700-2 is indicated to serve as a source node device that is to provide 3 MB of block(s) of data to the node device 2700-3 that is indicated to serve as a target node device that will receive the 3 MB. Similarly, with a matched set of indications of “2.5 MB” and “−2.5 MB” quantities of data, at least the node device 2700-4 is indicated to serve as a source node device that is to provide 2.5 MB of block(s) of data to the node device 2700-6 that is indicated to serve as a target node device that will receive the 2.5 MB.

It should be noted, however, in some embodiments, the control device 2500 may implement a rule that a target node device cannot be separated from its corresponding source node device(s) by another node devices that is not also serving as source node device to it such that the node device 2700-5 must also be treated as a source node device to the node device 2700-6 serving as a target node device. As a result, the node device 2700-5 may be treated as a source node device, even though it does not have any blocks of data to transmit.

Turning to FIG. 19C, the control device 2500 may transmit instructions via the network 2999 to one or more of the node devices 2700-1 through 2700-8 to cause the set of block exchanges to be performed. In some embodiments, the control device 2500 may identify node devices 2700 that do not have any blocks of data to be stored, and may refrain from communicating any further with such node devices 2700 concerning operations associated with the grouping of blocks of data, including any set of block exchanges. Thus, as depicted, the node device 2700-1 may not receive any instruction from the control device 2500 concerning the set of block exchanges. The control device 2500 may also treat the node device 2700-5 in like manner, unless the control device 2500 is required by a rule (such as the one described just above) to treat the node device 2700-5 as a source device, despite the node device 2700-5 having no blocks of data to transmit.

Among the devices 2700 that are to be involved in set of block exchanges, in some embodiments, the control device 2500 may limit the transmission of instructions for performing the set of block exchanges to the node devices 2700 that serve as source node devices that will each transmit one or more encrypted data blocks 2131 to another node device 2700 that serves as a target node device. In other embodiments, the control device 2500 may, instead, limit the transmission of instructions for performing the set of block exchanges to the node devices 2700 that serve as the target node devices that will each receive one or more encrypted data blocks 2131 from one or more other node devices 2700 that serve as a source node device. In such other embodiments, each of such target node devices 2700 may then transmit a request to the one or more source node devices 2700 from which one or more encrypted data blocks 2131 are to be received to proceed with providing those one or more encrypted data blocks 2131.

Regardless of exactly which node devices 2700 are to receive the instructions for performing the set of block exchanges from the control device 2500, in some embodiments, the instructions may include the block exchange vector 2212. In such embodiments, each of the node devices 2700 that receive the block exchange vector 2212 may analyze the block exchange vector 2212 in view of the node device identifier that has been assigned to it to determine what operations it is to perform (if any) as part of the set of block exchanges. Regardless of the exact content of the instructions for the set of block exchanges, regardless of exactly which node devices 2700 receive those instructions, once the source node devices 2700 s and/or the target node devices 2700 t have been provided with those instructions, the various transfers of one or more blocks of data of the set of block exchanges may be performed at least partially in parallel.

Turning to FIG. 19D, at least the ones of the node devices 2700-1 through 2700-8 that are involved in performing the set of block exchanges may cooperate to so perform the set of block exchanges thereamong through the network 2999. More specifically, as depicted, the node devices 2700-2 and 2700-3 cooperate to transfer the encrypted data block 2131-2 via the network 2999 from the node device 2700-2 (acting as source) and to the node device 2700-3 (acting as target), and the node devices 2700-4 and 2700-6 cooperate to transfer the encrypted data block 2131-4 via the network 2999 from the node device 2700-4 (acting as source) and to the node device 2700-6 (acting as target).

Upon completion of the exchange of the encrypted data block 2131-2, either or both of the node devices 2700-2 and 2700-3 may transmit an indication of completion of this particular exchange to the control device 2500 via the network 2999. Similarly upon completion of the exchange of the encrypted data block 2131-4, either or both of the node devices 2700-4 and 2700-6 may transmit an indication of completion of this particular exchange to the control device 2500 via the network 2999.

As also depicted, upon receiving the encrypted data block 2131-2, the node device 2700-3 may maintain the ordering among the encrypted data blocks 2131-2, 2131-3 a and 2131-3 b therein as part of maintaining the ordering among these encrypted data blocks that was originally defined through the ordering of the node devices 2700-1 to 2700-8 through the assignment of the node device identifiers “1” through “8”. Also, upon receiving the encrypted data block 2131-4, the node device 2700-6 may maintain the more of this same ordering between the encrypted data blocks 2131-4 and 2131-6 therein. As will shortly be explained, this same ordering is also meant to be maintained in the manner in which these encrypted data blocks are to be organized within the payload section 2113 of the data file 2110 within the one or more storage devices 2100.

Turning to FIG. 19E, with the set of block exchanges having been performed, the control device 2500 may transmit instructions to at least the node devices that now have blocks of data following the set of block exchanges for each to provide detailed information via the network 2999 for the blocks of data that each has for storage as part of a registration of the blocks of data (whether encrypted, or not) that are to be stored. As a result of the performance of the set of block exchanges depicted in FIG. 19D, the node devices 2700-3, 2700-6, 2700-7 and 2700-8 are the ones of the node devices 2700-1 to 2700-8 that now have blocks of data for storage within the one or more storage devices 2100. The detailed information that is to be provided may include the information needed to generate map entries 2511 within the map data 2510 for all of the blocks of data that are to be stored within the one or more storage devices 2100. Thus, in embodiments in which the data is non-partitioned data, the detailed information so provided may include a combination of the data block size and/or the data block encryption data 2519 for each of the depicted encrypted data blocks 2131-2, 2131-3 a, 2131-3 b, 2131-4, 2131-6, 2131-7 and 2131-8. Alternatively, in embodiments in which the data is partitioned data, the detailed information so provided may include a combination of the data block size, the data block encryption data 2519 and the data sub-block count for each of these encrypted data blocks, along with the sub-block size and the hashed identifier for each data sub-block 2133 that is included within each of these encrypted data blocks.

The control device 2500 may coordinate the provision of such detailed information by the node devices 2700-3, 2700-6, 2700-7 and 2700-8 to cause such information to be provided by these node device 2700, one at a time and in accordance with the ordering among them defined by their node device identifiers. Further each of the node devices 2700-3 and 2700-6, both of which have multiple encrypted data blocks 2131, may provide such detailed information to the control device 2500 in an order that preserves the ordering among the multiple encrypted data blocks 2131 that each have. Thus, the node device 2700-3 may first provide such detailed information for the encrypted data block 2131-2, followed by such detailed information for the encrypted data block 2131-3 a, and then by such detailed information for the encrypted data block 2131-3 b. Then, the node device 2700-6 may first provide such detailed information for the encrypted data block 2131-4, followed by such detailed information for the encrypted data block 2131-6. Then, the node device 2700-7 may provide such detailed information for the encrypted data block 2131-7, and then the node device 2700-8 may provide such detailed information for the encrypted data block 2131-8.

Again, such ordered transmission of such detailed information to the control device 2500 may be intended to enable the control device 2500 to more easily generate the map entries 2511 within the map data 2510 in an order that corresponds to the ordering of the encrypted data blocks 2131-2, 2131-3 a, 2131-3 b, 2131-4, 2131-6, 2131-7 and 2131-8, which is meant to correspond to the ordering among the node devices 2700-1 through 2700-8. As depicted, the resulting map data 2510 in this example may be sufficiently large in size as to necessitate being divided into both an encrypted map base 2116 and multiple encrypted map extensions 2118.

Turning to FIG. 19F, with the map data 2510 having been generated based on such registration of the encrypted data blocks 2131-2, 2131-3 a, 2131-3 b, 2131-4, 2131-6, 2131-7 and 2131-8, the control device 2500 may determine whether the size of the resulting depicted combination of the map block encryption data 2119, the encrypted map base 2116, the encrypted metadata 2336 and the multiple encrypted map extensions 2118 is sufficiently large, by itself, as to enable the formation of a segment 2230 that would meet the 5 MB minimum threshold size. Upon determining that the size of this combination of items is not sufficiently large, the control device 2500 may transmit this combination of items to the node device 2700-3 to be combined with at least one block of data to form a larger segment 2230.

Again, in selecting which node device 2700 to transmit such a combination of information to, the control device 2500 may select the lowest order node device 2700 that has one or more blocks of data to be stored as a result of the performance of the set of block exchanges. In this depicted example, the node device 2700-3 is the lowest-order node device 2700 that now has blocks of data to be stored following the performance of the set of block exchanges. This approach to selecting a node device to provide such a combination of information to may be intended to aid in achieving the ordering of the contents of the payload section 2113 depicted in FIGS. 15A-C in which the map block encryption data 2119 is to be positioned closest to the end of the payload section 2113 that is closest to the starting end 2112 of the data file 2110, followed within the payload section 2113 by the encrypted map base 2116, the encrypted metadata 2336, any encrypted map extensions 2118, and then the encrypted data blocks 2131, with the encrypted data blocks 2131 maintained in the order that corresponds to the ordering defined among the node devices 2700 by the node device identifiers assigned to each.

Turning to FIG. 19G, with the combination of the map block encryption data 2119, the encrypted map base 2116, the encrypted map data 2336, and the multiple encrypted map extensions 2118 provided to the node device 2700-3, the control device 2500 may transmit instructions to at least the ones of the node devices 2700-1 through 2700-8 that now have block(s) of data to store to proceed with generating and transmitting segments 2230 to the one or more control devices 2100. In response to such instructions, each of the node devices 2700-3, 2700-6, 2700-7 and 2700-8 may form one or more segments that conform to the minimum and maximum threshold sizes.

More specifically, the node device 2700-3 may determine that the combination of the map block encryption data 2119, the encrypted map base 2116, the encrypted metadata 2336, the multiple encrypted map extensions 2118, the encrypted data blocks 2131-2 and the encrypted data block 2131-3 a are to be grouped together to form a segment 2230-3 a that meets the minimum and maximum threshold sizes, while the encrypted data block 2131-3 b is to be placed within a separate segment 2230-3 b. Such a grouping may also serve to maintain the intended ordering among all of these items within the node device 2700-3 such that this same ordering is able to be reproduced within the payload section 2113.

The node device 2700-6 may determine that the combination of the encrypted data blocks 2131-4 and 2131-6 are able to be combined to form a single segment 2230-6 that meets the minimum and maximum threshold sizes.

The node device 2700-7 may determine that the single encrypted data block 2131-7 cannot be placed within a single segment 2230 that would fit within the minimum and maximum threshold sizes. In response, the node device 2700-7 may divide the encrypted data block 2131-7 in two by splitting it between two segments 2230-7 a and 2230-7 b.

The node device 2700-8 may determine that placing the encrypted data block 2131-8, by itself, within a segment 2230 will result in a segment that is not large enough to meet the minimum threshold size of 5 MB. However, as previously discussed, it may be that the application of the minimum threshold size includes an exception that permits a single one of the units of data by which data is transmitted to the one or more storage devices 2100 may be smaller than the minimum threshold size to avoid imposing a need to include padding, as was depicted in the example of FIGS. 18A-H. And therefore, the node device 2700-8 may proceed with placing the encrypted data block 2131-8, by itself, within a single segment 2230-8. However, in embodiments in which the minimum threshold size is strictly applied, then the node device 2700-8 may add the amount of padding need to the segment 2230-8 to cause the segment 2230-8 to meet the minimum threshold size.

With the segments 2230-3 a, 2230-3 b, 2230-6, 2230-7 a, 2230-7 b and 2230-8 so generated, the node devices 2700-3, 2700-6, 2700-7 and 2700-8 may transmit their segments respective ones of these segments via the network 2999 to the one or more storage devices at least partially in parallel.

Turning to FIG. 19H, the one or more storage devices 2100 may transmit a separate acknowledgement of receipt for each one of the segments 2230-3 a, 2230-3 b, 2230-6, 2230-7 a, 2230-7 b and 2230-8 that are received. It may be that one or more storage devices 2100 transmit each such acknowledgement of receipt back to the particular device from which the corresponding segment 2230 was received. Thus, in this example, it may be the node devices 2700-3, 2700-6, 2700-7 and 2700-8 that receive such acknowledgements.

Again, each such acknowledgement received from the one or more storage devices 2100 may include a segment identifier 2214 for the corresponding segment, and each such segment identifier 2214 may be generated by the one or more storage devices 2100. Thus, as depicted, each of the node devices 2700-3, 2700-6, 2700-7 and 2700-8 may relay each such received segment identifier 2214 to the control device 2500 via the network 2999.

In so doing, the node devices 2700-3 and 2700-6 may provide an indication of which segment identifier 2214 corresponds to which of the multiple segments 2230 that was transmitted by each of these two node device 2700. Alternatively, each of the node device 2700-3 and 2700-6 may provide all of the segment identifiers 2214 that each of these two node devices 2700 receives to the control device 2500 as a set that is organized into an ordering that follows the ordering of the multiple segments 2230 that each transmitted, which as has been discussed, is an ordering based on the intended relative positions of the contents of the segments 2230 within the payload section 2113, which as has also been discussed, is an ordering that is at least partially based on the ordering among the node devices 2700 defined by the node device identifiers 2700 assigned thereto.

Turning to FIG. 19I, regardless of the exact manner in which the ordering of segment identifiers 2214 is communicated to the control device 2500, the control device 2500 may organize the segment identifiers within a segment identity vector 2216 or other data structure that maintains an ordering among the segment identifiers 2214 that corresponds to the ordering among the segments 2230 (at least if there was more than one segment 2230 transmitted) that is needed to achieve the earlier discussed intended ordering of the contents of the payload section 2113.

With the segment identity vector 2216 fully generated, the control device 2500 may then transmit the segment identity vector 2216 to the one or more storage devices 2100 to provide the one or more storage devices 2100 with an indication of how the contents of the segments 2230-3 a, 2230-3 b, 2230-6, 2230-7 a, 2230-7 b and 2230-8 are to be organized within the payload section 2113 so as to cause such organization thereof to be effected.

FIGS. 20A through 20H, together, illustrate, in greater detail, an example of storing an encrypted form the data set 2330 where the data set 2330 is made up of non-partitioned data in embodiments of the distributed processing system 2000 of FIG. 13A, 13B or 13C in which there may be various restrictions on the size and/or quantity of units of data that may be transmitted to the one or more storage devices 2100. More specifically, FIGS. 20A and 20B, together, depict aspects of arranging and performing a set of block exchanges among multiple node devices 2700 in preparation for forming segments 2230. FIGS. 20C and 20D depict aspects of the registration of blocks of data following the set of block exchanges. FIG. 20E depicts aspects of a determination that may be made to provide the map data 2510 and other information concerning the data set 2330 to one of the node device 2700 to be combined with one or more blocks of data into a segment 2230. FIGS. 20F and 20G, together, depict aspects of the transmission of segments 2230 to the one or more storage devices 2100. FIG. 20H depicts aspects of coordinating the ordering of the segments 2230 with the one or more storage devices 2100.

It should be noted that, in embodiments of the distributed processing system 2000 that do not include multiple node devices 2700 that may each incorporate the processor component 2750 to execute an instance of the control routine 2740, there may be multiple instances of the control routine 2740 that are separately executed in separate threads of execution provided by multiple processor cores 2555 of one or more of processor component 2550 within the control devices 2500. As a result, the coordination about to be discussed between the node devices 2700 and the control device 2500 via the network 2999 may, instead, be performed among multiple ones of the processor cores 2555 of one or more processor component 2550 within the control device 2500.

Turning to FIG. 20A, as depicted, in addition to various other components that have previously been described, the control routine 2740 may include a task component 2745 to perform processing tasks as directed by the control device 2500. Correspondingly, the control routine 2540 may additionally include a coordinating component 2545 to coordinate the at least partially parallel distributed performances of various tasks among multiple ones of the node devices 2700.

Upon completion of processing(s) task involving a data set portion 2732 of the data set 2330, the task component 2745 may operate the network interface 2790 of the node device 2700 to transmit an indication of such completion to the control device 2500 via the network 2999. In some embodiments, this indication of task completion may be accompanied by the grouping component 2746 operating the network interface 2790 to transmit an indication of the total size of the blocks of data within the node device 2700 that are to be stored. As depicted, the blocks of data to be stored may be one or more encrypted data blocks 2131. However, in other embodiments, the blocks of data to be stored may be one or more data blocks 2130, each of which is an unencrypted block of data.

Within the control device 2500 or controller 2507, the coordinating component 2545 may monitor each of the node devices 2700 that had been assigned to perform the same processing task(s) with different portions of the data set 2330, and may store the received indications of which node devices 2700 have completed the performance of those task(s) as part of the node data 2530. In some embodiments, it may be the receipt of indications of completion of the processing task(s) from all of those node devices 2700 that triggers the grouping component 2546 to operate the network interface 2560 to transmit requests via the network 2999 for each to provide its indication of the total size of blocks of data to be stored. As the indications of total size are received from each of those node devices 2700, the grouping component may store indications of those total sizes within the total sizes vector 2211. As discussed earlier in greater detail, the total sizes vector 2211 (or other similar data structure) may maintain each of the total size indications in an order that follows the earlier-described ordering among the node devices 2700 that may be defined through the assignment of node device identifiers.

Turning to FIG. 20B, upon receipt of indications of total size from each of the node devices 2700 with blocks of data to be stored, the grouping component 2546 within the control device 2500 or controller 2507 may analyze the ordered indications of total size within the total sizes vector to derive a set of block exchanges to be performed among those node devices 2700 to group their blocks of data within a subset of the node devices 2700 in which segments 2230 will be formed. In some embodiments, and as previously discussed in detail, the grouping component 2546 may apply a rule in which all exchanges of one or more blocks of data must be from a lower-ordered node device 2700 to a higher-ordered node device 2700. However, it should be noted that, in other embodiments, other rules may be employed for the derivation of the set of block exchanges. By way of example, in other embodiments, a rule of in which all exchanges must be from a higher-ordered node device 2700 to a lower-ordered node device 2700. Also by way of example, exchanges in either of the lower-ordered to higher-ordered direction, or the higher-ordered to lower-ordered direction may be permitted.

Regardless of the exact rule(s) that are applied to deriving a set of block exchanges, the grouping component 2546 may store indications of the set of block exchanges within the block exchange vector 2212. As discussed earlier in greater detail, the block exchange vector 2212 (or other similar data structure) may maintain a set of indications of which node devices 2700 are to function as a source node devices that transmit their blocks of data, and which node devices 2700 are to function as target node devices that receive blocks of data, and may do so in a manner that follows the ordering among the node devices 2700 that may be defined through the assignment of node device identifiers.

With the derivation of the set of block exchanges completed, the grouping component 2546 may operate the network interface 2590 to transmit instructions for the performance of the set of block exchanges, via the network 2999, to at least the ones of the node devices 2700 that are to be involved therein. In some embodiments, each node device 2700 that is to serve as a source node device 2700 s by transmitting its blocks of data to another node device 2700 that is to serve as a target node device 2700 t may receive specific instructions identifying the other node device 2700 that is to serve as its target node device 2700 t, and/or each node device 2700 that is to server as a target node device 2700 t by receiving blocks of data from at least one other node device 2700 that is to serve as a source node device 2700 s may receive specific instructions identifying the other node device(s) 2700 that are to serve as its source node devices 2700 s. However, in other embodiments, it may be that at least all of the ones of the node devices 2700 are to be involved in the set of block exchanges in either role may receive a data structure that sets forth the entire set of block exchanges (e.g., the block exchange vector 2212), and within each of those node devices 2700, the grouping component 2746 may parse that data structure to determine if that node device 2700 is to serve as a source node device 2700 s or a target node device 2700 t.

With the instructions for the performance of the set of block exchanges so distributed, the grouping components 2746 among the node devices 2700 that are involved in the set of block exchanges may operate their respective network interfaces 2790 to cooperate via the network 2999 to perform the set of block exchanges thereamong, and may do so at least partially in parallel with each other. Specifically, as depicted, each node device 2700 that serves as a source node device 2700 s cooperates with another node device 2700 that serves as its corresponding target node device 2700 t to transfer one or more blocks of data (e.g., one or more of the depicted encrypted data blocks 2131, or one or more data blocks 2130 that are not encrypted) therebetween. As also depicted, each node device 2700 that serves as a source node device 2700 s may also transfer one or more pieces of information about those block(s) of data to the other node device 2700 that serves as a target node device 2700 t to receive those block(s) of data. By way of example, in embodiments where the block(s) of data so transferred between two node devices 2700 s and 2700 t are of an entirely new data set 2330 that was generated as a result of the processing tasks performed by the node devices 2700, then the node devices 2700 may have each also generated at least a portion of the metadata 2335 that describes various aspects of the data set 2330 (e.g., whether the data is partitioned or non-partitioned) and/or the manner in which data values are organized within at least the blocks of data that it generated. In such embodiments, each of the node devices 2700 that serves as a source node device 2700 s may also transfer its generated portion of the metadata 2335 to the node device 2700 that serves as its corresponding target node device 2700 t. Also by way of example, in embodiments in which the block(s) of data so transferred between two node devices 2700 s and 2700 t are encrypted data block(s) 2131 (as depicted), each of the node devices 2700 that serves as a source node device 2700 s may also transfer the data block encryption data 2519 used to perform the encryption of each of encrypted data block 2131 to the node device 2700 that serves as its corresponding target node device 2700 t.

Turning to FIG. 20C, as previously discussed, upon completion of the set of block exchanges, the quantity of node devices 2700 that now have the blocks of data that make up the data set 2330 to be stored may be significantly reduced to a smaller subset thereof. Following the set of exchanges, each of the node devices 2700 of that subset may provide detailed information concerning the blocks of data that each now has to the control device 2500 or controller 2507 as part of performing a registration of those blocks of data, as previously discussed.

More specifically, within each of the node devices 2700 of that subset, the task component 2745 may transmit at least a portion of the metadata 2335 that describes aspects of the organization of data within the blocks of data that are within that node device 2700 to the control device 2500 via the network 2999. Also, in embodiments in which the blocks of data are encrypted data blocks 2131 (as depicted), the encryption component 2742 may operate the network interface 2790 to transmit an indication of the size of each of the encrypted data blocks 2131, along with the data block encryption data 2519 generated by the encryption component 2742 and used thereby in generating each of the encrypted data blocks 2131. However, in embodiments in which the blocks of data are non-encrypted data blocks 2130, it may be the persisting component 2741 that operates the network interface 2790 to transmit an indication of the size of each such data block 2130.

Within the control device 2500, the mapping component 2541 may operate the network interface 2590 to receive such transmitted information concerning each block of data to be stored, and may use those received indications to generate the map data 2510 for the data set 2330. Mores specifically, the mapping component 2541 may add a new map entry 2511 for each block of data that includes at least an indication of the size of the block (see FIGS. 15A and 15C for non-partitioned encrypted data or FIGS. 14A and 14C for non-partitioned and non-encrypted data), and that includes the data block encryption data 2519 for each block of data where the blocks of data are encrypted data blocks 2131 (as depicted).

As previously discussed, in some embodiments, the transmissions of such information concerning each block of data may be coordinated by the control device 2500 or controller 2507 to occur in an order that follows the ordering among the node devices 2700 that may be defined by the node device identifiers assigned thereto. Also, each of the node devices 2700 that transmits such information may organize that information within each such transmission to follow the ordering among the blocks of data that, as previously discussed, is also at least partially defined by the ordering among the node devices 2700. Thus, in such embodiments, the transmissions of such information concerning each block of data by these node devices 2700 may be serialized. However, in other embodiments, various mechanisms may be used to avoid such serialization so as to allow these transmission of such information to occur at least partially in parallel. By way of example, in such other embodiments, each transmission may be accompanied by an indication of the node device identifier assigned to the node device 2700 from which the transmission originates, thereby allowing the control device 2500 or controller 2507 to buffer the information within each such transmission, and then assemble the map data 2510 with the entries 2511 thereof in order without reliance on the transmissions, themselves, being transmitted in any particular order. More precisely, and turning momentarily to FIG. 20D, the mapping component 2541 may employ multiple reception threads (supported by one or more of the processor components 2550 of the control device 2500 or controller 2507) that each await and then receive such a transmission from a different corresponding one of the node devices 2700. Each such reception thread may buffer the information contained in the transmission it receives, and may await an indication, from a separate mapping thread of the mapping component 2541 that generates the map data 2510, of when to provide that information to that mapping thread. In this way, the serialization of communication occurs among multiple threads associated with the mapping component 2541 within the control device 2500 or controller 2507, instead of among the node devices 2700, thereby permitting the node devices 2700 to make such transmissions to the control device 2500 or controller 2507 at least partially in parallel and without the additional communications overhead of serialization of those transmissions.

Returning to FIG. 20C, and following the generation of the map data 2510, the encryption component 2542 may encrypt the map data 2510 to generate an encrypted map base 2116, or to generate a combination of an encrypted map base 2116 and the multiple encrypted map extensions 2118 in embodiments in which the data set 2330 is to be stored in encrypted form (e.g., as encrypted data blocks 2131, as depicted). Otherwise, in embodiments in which the data set 2330 is to be stored in non-encrypted form (e.g., as non-encrypted data blocks 2130), the mapping component 2541 one may generate a map base 2115, or may generate a combination of a map base 2115 and multiple map extensions 2117 (see FIGS. 14A and 14C), which then remain unencrypted (e.g., not encrypted to generate the encrypted map base 2116 and multiple encrypted map extensions 2118, as depicted in FIGS. 16A-B). In embodiments in which the data set 2330 is to be stored in encrypted form, the encryption component 2542 may also encrypt the metadata 2335 to generate the encrypted metadata 2336. Otherwise, in embodiments in which the data set 2330 is to be stored in non-encrypted form, the metadata 2335 may simply remain unencrypted.

Turning to FIG. 20E, as previously discussed, the imposed restrictions concerning units of data of the data set 2330 that are to be transmitted to the one or more storage devices 2100 may include a minimum threshold size per unit of data that may be larger than the combined total size of the map base 2115, any map extensions 2117 and the metadata 2335, or of the encrypted map base 2116, any encrypted map extensions 2118 and the encrypted map data 2336. Thus, the grouping component 2546 of the control device 2500 or controller 2507 may evaluate the total size of that combination of pieces of information concerning the data set 2330 to determine if that total size is sufficient to meet a minimum threshold size that may be imposed. If not, then the grouping component 2546 may operate the network interface 2590 to transmit this combination of such information to one of the node devices 2700 that is among the subset to still have one or more blocks of data following the performance of the set of block exchanges. In so doing, and as previously discussed, the grouping component 2546 may select the lowest-order node device 2700 of that subset of node devices 2700. As also previously discussed, this may be done as part of ensuring that the contents of the payload section 3116 of the data file 3110 will be organized correctly, starting with the map base 2115 or encrypted map base 2116 closest to the end of the payload section 3116 that is closest to the starting end 2112 of the data file, followed by the metadata 2335 or encrypted metadata 2336, any map extensions 2117 or encrypted map extensions 2118, and then by the data blocks 2130 or encrypted data blocks 2131 (see FIGS. 14A, 14C, 15A and 15C).

However, and turning to FIG. 20F, if such a combination of the map base 2115, any map extensions 2117 and the metadata 2335, or such a combination of the encrypted map base 2116, any encrypted map extensions 2118 and the encrypted map data 2336 are has a total size that is sufficient to meet a minimum threshold size that may be imposed, then the grouping component 2546 may group such a combination of pieces of information into one or more segments 2230, each of which may be sized to fit the minimum and/or maximum threshold sizes that may be imposed. As previously discussed, in forming such segment(s) 2230, the grouping component 2546 may maintain the correct ordering among these pieces of information, again to ensure that they are organized correctly within the payload section 2113.

Following the formation of such segment(s) 2230, the grouping component 2546 may operate the network interface 2590 to transmit the segment(s) 2230 generated within the control device 2500 or controller 2507 to the one or more storage devices 2100 via the network 2999. In response to each segment 2230 received by the one or more storage devices 2100 from the control device 2500 or controller 2507, the one or more storage devices 2100 may transmit a corresponding segment identifier 2214 back to the control device 2500 or controller 2507.

Turning to FIG. 20G, with the metadata 2335 and the map data 2510 (in either encrypted or unencrypted form) provided to one of the subset of node devices 2700 to be included in a segment 2230 along with one or more blocks of data, or with a determination made by the grouping component 2546 that such a combination of pieces of information about the data set 2330 are to be formed into one or more segments 2230 within the control device 2500 or controller 2507, the formation of segments 2230 within that subset of node devices 2700 may be performed. More specifically, within each node device 2700 of the subset of node devices 2700 that still have one or more blocks of data following the performance of the set of block exchanges, the grouping component 2746 may form the one or more blocks of data therein (e.g., the one or more data blocks 2130 therein, or the one or more encrypted data blocks 2131 therein) into one or more segments 2230 that are each to fit the minimum and/or maximum threshold sizes that may be imposed.

In so forming these segments 2230, and as previously discussed, the grouping component 2746 may maintain the order among the blocks of data stemming from the ordering among the node devices 2700 defined by the node device identifiers assigned to each. Thus, such an ordering among the blocks of data within each such node device 2700 may be maintained in how the blocks of data may be divided among more than one segment 2230 to avoid generating a segment that exceeds an imposed maximum threshold size, and/or in arranging multiple blocks of data within each segment 2230. Further, such ordering among the block(s) of data, and the combination of the map base 2115 or encrypted map base 2116, the metadata 2335 or encrypted metadata 2336, and any map extensions 2117 or encrypted map extensions 2118, may also be maintained in similarly forming one or more segments 2230.

Following the formation of such segment(s) 2230, within each node device 2700 of the subset of node devices 2700, the grouping component 2746 may operate the network interface 2790 to transmit the segment(s) 2230 to the one or more storage devices 2100 via the network 2999. In response to each segment 2230 received by the one or more storage devices 2100 from one of the node devices 2700, the one or more storage devices 2100 may transmit a corresponding segment identifier 2214 back to that particular one of the node devices 2700. As depicted, the grouping component 2746 within each such node device 2700 may then operate the network interface 2790 to relay each such segment identifier 2214 to control device 2500 or controller 2507. In so doing, each of such node devices 2700 with multiple ones of such segment identifiers 2214 to so relay, either may do so in an order that follows the ordering of the contents within and among segments 2230 that it formed and transmitted to the one or more storage devices 2100, or may do so explicit indicators of that ordering.

As previously discussed, within the control device 2500 or controller 2507, the grouping component 2546 may store indications of those segment identifiers 2214 within the segment identity vector 2216. As discussed earlier in greater detail, the segment identity vector 2216 (or other similar data structure) may maintain each of the segment identifiers 2214 in an order that follows the earlier-described ordering among the contents within each of the segments 2230 (and thus, among the segments 2230, themselves) stemming from the ordering among the node devices 2700 defined by the node device identifiers assigned to each.

Turning to FIG. 20H, with the segment identity vector 2216 so generated, the grouping component 2546 may operate the network interface 2590 to transmit the segment identity vector 2216 to the one or more storage devices 2100 where it may be used thereby to put the segments 2230 in their proper order therein, thereby putting the contents of the payload section 2113 of the data file 2110 in correct order.

FIGS. 21A-E, together, illustrate an example of retrieving the data set 2330 where the data set 2330 is made up of non-partitioned data in embodiments of the distributed processing system 2000 of FIG. 13A, 13B or 13C in greater detail. More specifically, FIGS. 21A and 21B, together, depict aspects of the collection of information needed by the control device 2500 to determine a distribution of encrypted data blocks 2131 among available ones of the node devices 2700. FIG. 21C depicts aspects of the transmission of pointers to available ones of the node devices 2700. FIG. 21D depicts aspects of the retrieval of one or more encrypted data blocks 2131 by a single node device 2700. FIG. 21E depicts aspects of an approach to effecting a relatively balanced distribution of the encrypted data blocks 2131 among available ones of the node devices 2700.

It should be noted that, in embodiments of the distributed processing system 2000 that do not include multiple node devices 2700 that may each incorporate the processor component 2750 to execute an instance of the control routine 2740, there may be multiple instances of the control routine 2740 that are separately executed in separate threads of execution provided by multiple processor cores 2555 of one or more of processor component 2550 within the control devices 2500. As a result, the coordination about to be discussed between the node devices 2700 and the control device 2500 via the network 2999 may, instead, be performed among multiple ones of the processor cores 2555 of one or more processor component 2550 within the control device 2500.

Turning to FIG. 21A, within each node device 2700 of multiple node devices 2700, the task component 2745 may operate the network interface 2790 to recurringly transmit indications of the current status of the node device 2700 to the control device 2500 via the network 2999. Such recurring transmissions may convey an indication of the availability of the node device 2700 to perform tasks on one or more portions of a data set.

Within the control device 2500, the coordinating component 2545 may operate the network interface 2590 to recurringly monitor for received indications of the status of node devices 2700, and may maintain and recurringly update indications of the current state of each node device 2700 as part of the node data 2530. More specifically, the coordinating component 2545 may recurringly monitor for indications of whether each node device 2700 of the multiple node devices 2700 is available to be assigned to perform operations on a portion of a data set as part of a distributed and at least partially parallel performance of a processing task involving multiple portions of a data set, such as the embodiment of the data set 2330 made up of non-partitioned data.

Turning to FIG. 21B, as depicted, the control routine 2540 may include a decryption component 2544 to decrypt earlier encrypted blocks of the map data 2510 and/or of the metadata 2335. As part of retrieving the non-partitioned data of such an embodiment of the data set 2330, the mapping component 2541 may operate the network interface 2590 to retrieve the encrypted map base 2116 (and any accompanying encrypted map extensions 2118—see FIG. 15C) via the network 2999 from the payload section 2113 of the data file 2110 stored within the one or more storage devices 2100. The decryption component 2544 may then decrypt the encrypted map base 2116 (and any accompanying encrypted map extensions 2118) to generate the map base 2115 (and any corresponding map extensions 2117). As previously discussed, the map base 2115 (and any accompanying map extensions 2117) may provide a map of the manner in which the multiple data set portions 2732 of the data set 2330 are stored within the payload section 2113 as multiple encrypted data blocks 2131. The mapping component 2541 may store such a map as the map data 2510.

Additionally, the mapping component 2541 may operate the network interface 2590 to retrieve the encrypted metadata 2336 via the network 2999 from the payload section 2113. The decryption component 2544 may then decrypt the encrypted metadata 2336 to generate the metadata 2335 that describes aspects of the organization of the data within the data set 2330.

Turning to FIG. 21C, as depicted, the coordinating component 2545 may refer to the recurringly updated indications of status of multiple node devices 2700 in the node data 2530 to determine which ones of the multiple node devices 2700 are currently available to decrypt one or more of the encrypted data blocks 2131 to generate one or more corresponding data set portions 2732 of the data set 2330, and then perform a processing task on the one or more corresponding data set portions 2732. The coordinating component 2545 may then operate the network interface 2590 to transmit an indication of what the processing task is to be performed to the available ones of the node devices 2700 via the network 2999. In so doing, the coordinating component 2545 may also distribute copies of at least a portion of the metadata 2335 to each of those available node devices 2700.

Additionally, the mapping component 2541 may operate the network interface 2590 to transmit, to the available ones of the node devices 2700, one or more pointers to encrypted data blocks 2131 within the payload section 2113. In so doing, the mapping component 2541 may refer to the map data 2510 to identify the locations within the payload section 2113 at which each of the pointers point to enable retrieval of the encrypted data blocks 2131 therefrom. In some embodiments, the mapping component 2541 may derive such locations for each encrypted data block 2131 within the payload section 2113, at least in part, by summing the sizes specified in the map data 2510 for all the encrypted data blocks 2131 that precede each encrypted data block 2131. The mapping component 2541 may receive indications of which ones of the multiple node devices 2700 are the available ones from the coordinating component 2545 or may directly retrieve such indications from the node data 2530. Each transmission of a pointer may include an indication of the size of the encrypted data block(s) 2131 pointed to by that pointer to enable each of the available ones of the node devices 2700 to retrieve the correct amount of data when retrieving each of the encrypted data blocks 2131 from the payload section 2113. Each transmission of a pointer may also include the data block encryption data 2519 needed to decrypt the data block(s) 2131 pointed to by that pointer to generate unencrypted corresponding data set portions 2732 therefrom.

Within each node device 2700, the task component 2745 may operate the network interface 2790 to recurringly monitor for received indications from the control device 2500 of a task to perform, and may locally store any portion of the metadata 2335 received via the network 2999 for use in performing such a task. As depicted, the control routine 2740 may additionally include a retrieval component 2743 and a decryption component 2744. The retrieval component 2743 may operate the network interface 2790 to recurringly monitor for any transmissions of pointers from the control device 2500 via the network 2999, and may store any such received pointers as part of the pointer data 2735. Correspondingly, the decryption component 2744 may operate the network interface 2790 to recurringly monitor for any transmissions of data block encryption data 2519 from the control device for use in decrypting encrypted data blocks 2131. The retrieval component 2743 may effect retrieval of one or more encrypted data blocks 2131 from the payload section 2113 for decryption by the decryption component 2744 to generate corresponding one or more data set portions 2732 for use in the performance of a task by the task component 2745. In decrypting each of the encrypted data blocks 2131 so retrieved, the decrypting component 2744 may employ the data block encryption data 2519 provided by the control device 2500 to decrypt that particular encrypted data block 2131.

Turning to FIG. 17D, which depicts a single example one of the available node devices 2700, in response to receiving one or more pointers to one or more encrypted data blocks 2131 within the payload section 2113, the retrieval component 2743 may operate the network interface 2790 to retrieve the one or more encrypted data blocks 2131 from the payload section 2113. In so doing, the retrieval component 2743 may transmit one or more commands to the one or more storage devices 2100 to provide the one or more data blocks 2131, employing the one or more pointers and/or the accompanying indications of size to specify the one or more encrypted data blocks 2131 to be provided by the one or more storage devices 2100. The retrieval component 2743 may locally store each of the retrieved encrypted data blocks 2131 for the decryption component 2744 to decrypt to generate corresponding one or more data set portions 2732 for use by the task component 2745 in performing the task specified to the node device 2700 by the control device 2500.

How many of the encrypted data blocks 2131 are retrieved by each of the available ones of the node devices 2700 from the payload section 2113 may be determined by the manner in which pointers to the encrypted data blocks 2131 are distributed among the available ones of the node devices 2700 by the control device 1500. Turning to FIG. 21E, in some embodiments, the pointers may be distributed in a round robin manner to the available ones of the node devices 2700. It should be noted that FIG. 21E depicts a relatively simplistic example of distribution of among only three node devices 2700 a-c in a round robin manner for purposes of illustration. It is envisioned that a considerably greater quantity of node devices 2700 would more likely be used. This approach may be deemed desirable due to its simplicity of implementation and/or as an approach to distributing the encrypted data blocks 2131 among the available ones of the node devices 2700 in relatively similar quantities.

FIGS. 22A and 22B, together, illustrate, in greater detail, an example of storing an encrypted form of the data set 2330 where the data set 2330 is made up of partitioned data in embodiments of the distributed processing system 2000 of FIG. 13A, 13B or 13C in which there may be various restrictions on the size and/or quantity of units of data that may be transmitted to the one or more storage devices 2100. Since much of what is done to store an encrypted form of the data set 2330 that is made up of partitioned data is substantially similar to what is done to store an encrypted form of the data set 2330 that is made up of non-partitioned data, which was depicted in FIGS. 20A through 20H, FIGS. 22A and 22B depict portions of what is done in the case of the encrypted form of partitioned data that substantially differs from what is done in the case of the encrypted form of non-partitioned data. More specifically, FIGS. 22A and 22B depict aspects of the registration of blocks of partitioned data following a set of block exchanges of blocks of partitioned data in a manner that largely corresponds to what FIGS. 20C and 20D depict in the way of aspects of registration of blocks of non-partitioned data following a set of block exchanges of blocks of non-partitioned data.

It should be noted that, in embodiments of the distributed processing system 2000 that do not include multiple node devices 2700 that may each incorporate the processor component 2750 to execute an instance of the control routine 2740, there may be multiple instances of the control routine 2740 that are separately executed in separate threads of execution provided by multiple processor cores 2555 of one or more of processor component 2550 within the control devices 2500. As a result, the coordination about to be discussed between the node devices 2700 and the control device 2500 via the network 2999 may, instead, be performed among multiple ones of the processor cores 2555 of one or more processor component 2550 within the control device 2500.

Turning to FIG. 22A, again, upon completion of the set of block exchanges, the quantity of node devices 2700 that now have the blocks of data that make up the data set 2330 to be stored may be significantly reduced to a smaller subset thereof. Following the set of exchanges, each of the node devices 2700 of that subset may provide detailed information concerning the blocks of data that each now has to the control device 2500 or controller 2507 as part of performing a registration of those blocks of data.

More specifically, within each of the node devices 2700 of that subset, the task component 2745 may transmit at least a portion of the metadata 2335 that describes aspects of the organization of data within the blocks of data that are within that node device 2700 to the control device 2500 via the network 2999. Also, in embodiments in which the blocks of data are encrypted data blocks 2131 (as depicted), the encryption component 2742 may operate the network interface 2790 to transmit, for each encrypted data block 2131, an indication of the size of each of the data sub-blocks 2133 therein, and the hashed identifier of each data sub-block 2133 therein, along with the data block encryption data 2519 generated and used by the encryption component 2742 in generating the encrypted data block 2131. However, in embodiments in which the blocks of data are non-encrypted data blocks 2130, it may be the persisting component 2741 that operates the network interface 2790 to transmit, for each such data block 2130, an indication of the size of each of the data sub-blocks 2133 therein, and the hashed identifier of each data sub-block 2133 therein.

Again, within the control device 2500, the mapping component 2541 may operate the network interface 2590 to receive such transmitted information concerning each block of data to be stored, and may use those received indications to generate the map data 2510 for the data set 2330. Again, the transmissions of such information concerning each block of data may be coordinated by the control device 2500 or controller 2507 to occur in an order that follows the ordering among the node devices 2700 that may be defined by the node device identifiers assigned thereto. Also again, each of the node devices 2700 that transmits such information may organize that information within each such transmission to follow the ordering among the blocks of data that, as previously discussed, is also at least partially defined by the ordering among the node devices 2700. Thus, again, in such embodiments, the transmissions of such information concerning each block of data by these node devices 2700 may be serialized. However, again, in other embodiments, various mechanisms may be used to avoid such serialization so as to allow these transmission of such information to occur at least partially in parallel. Again, each transmission may be accompanied by an indication of the node device identifier assigned to the node device 2700 from which the transmission originates, thereby allowing the control device 2500 or controller 2507 to buffer the information within each such transmission, and then assemble the map data 2510 with the entries 2511 thereof in order without reliance on the transmissions, themselves, being transmitted in any particular order. More precisely, and turning momentarily to FIG. 22B, the mapping component 2541 may employ multiple reception threads (supported by one or more of the processor components 2550 of the control device 2500 or controller 2507) that each await and then receive such a transmission from a different corresponding one of the node devices 2700. Each such reception thread may buffer the information contained in the transmission it receives, and may await an indication, from a separate mapping thread of the mapping component 2541 that generates the map data 2510, of when to provide that information to that mapping thread. In this way, the serialization of communication occurs among multiple threads associated with the mapping component 2541 within the control device 2500 or controller 2507, instead of among the node devices 2700, thereby permitting the node devices 2700 to make such transmissions to the control device 2500 or controller 2507 at least partially in parallel and without the additional communications overhead of serialization of those transmissions.

Returning to FIG. 22A, again, following the generation of the map data 2510, the encryption component 2542 may encrypt the map data 2510 to generate an encrypted map base 2116, or to generate a combination of an encrypted map base 2116 and the multiple encrypted map extensions 2118 in embodiments in which the data set 2330 is to be stored in encrypted form (e.g., as encrypted data blocks 2131, as depicted). Otherwise, in embodiments in which the data set 2330 is to be stored in non-encrypted form (e.g., as non-encrypted data blocks 2130), the mapping component 2541 one may generate a map base 2115, or may generate a combination of a map base 2115 and multiple map extensions 2117 (see FIGS. 14A and 14C), which then remain unencrypted (e.g., not encrypted to generate the encrypted map base 2116 and multiple encrypted map extensions 2118, as depicted in FIGS. 16A-B). Again, in embodiments in which the data set 2330 is to be stored in encrypted form, the encryption component 2542 may also encrypt the metadata 2335 to generate the encrypted metadata 2336. Otherwise, in embodiments in which the data set 2330 is to be stored in non-encrypted form, the metadata 2335 may simply remain unencrypted.

FIGS. 23A-D, together, illustrate an example of retrieving the data set 2330 where the data set 2330 is made up of partitioned data in embodiments of the distributed processing system 2000 of FIG. 13A, 13B or 13C in greater detail. More specifically, FIG. 23A depicts aspects of the collection of information needed by the control device 2500 to determine a distribution of encrypted data blocks 2131 among available ones of the node devices 2700. FIG. 23B depicts aspects of transmission of the pointers to available ones of the node devices 2700. FIG. 23C depicts aspects of an approach to effecting a relatively balanced distribution of the encrypted data blocks 2131 among available ones of the node devices 2700. FIG. 23D depicts aspects of the retrieval of one or more encrypted data blocks by a single node device 2700.

It should be noted that, in embodiments of the distributed processing system 2000 that do not include multiple node devices 2700 that may each incorporate the processor component 2750 to execute an instance of the control routine 2740, there may be multiple instances of the control routine 2740 that are separately executed in separate threads of execution provided by multiple processor cores 2555 of one or more of processor component 2550 within the control devices 2500. As a result, the coordination about to be discussed between the node devices 2700 and the control device 2500 via the network 2999 may, instead, be performed among multiple ones of the processor cores 2555 of one or more processor component 2550 within the control device 2500.

Turning to FIG. 23A, as part of retrieving the partitioned data of such an embodiment of the data set 2330, the mapping component 2541 may operate the network interface 2590 to retrieve the encrypted base map 2116 (and any accompanying encrypted map extensions 2118—see FIG. 15C) via the network 2999 from the payload section 2113 of the data file 2110 stored within the one or more storage devices 2100. The decryption component 2544 may then decrypt the encrypted map base 2116 (and any accompanying encrypted map extensions 2118) to generate the map base 2115 (and any corresponding map extensions 2117). As previously discussed, the map base 2115 (and any accompanying map extensions 2117) may provide a map of the manner in which the multiple data set portions 2732 of the partitioned embodiment of the data set 2330 are stored within the payload section 2113. The mapping component 2541 may store such a map as the map data 2510.

Additionally, the mapping component 2541 may operate the network interface 2590 to retrieve the encrypted metadata 2335 via the network 2999 from the payload section 2113. The decryption component 2544 may then decrypt the encrypted metadata 2336 to generate the metadata 2335 that describes aspects of the organization of the data within the data set 2330. Alternatively or additionally, the mapping component 2541 may additionally operate the network interface 2590 to retrieve the data header 2112, which (if present) may describe the quantity of node devices 2700 that most recently stored the data set 2330 within the payload section 2113 of the data file 2110. Again, in various embodiments, the data header 2112 may be incorporated into one or both of the base map 2115 and the metadata 2335.

Turning to FIG. 23B, as depicted, the coordinating component 2545 may refer to recurringly updated indications of status of multiple node devices 2700 in the node data 2530 to determine which ones of the multiple node devices 2700 are currently available to decrypt one or more of the encrypted data blocks 2131 to generate corresponding data set portions 2732 of the data set 2330, and then perform a processing task on the corresponding data set portions 2732 of the partitioned embodiment of the data set 2330. The coordinating component 2545 may then operate the network interface 2590 to transmit an indication of what the processing task is to be performed to the available ones of the node devices 2700 via the network 2999. In so doing, the coordinating component 2545 may also distribute copies of at least a portion of the metadata 2335 to each of those available node devices 2700.

The mapping component 2541 may first make a determination of which of two approaches to use in distributing encrypted data blocks 2131 of the data set 2330 among the currently available node devices 2700 for processing, and accordingly, which of two approaches to use in deriving and distributing pointers among the currently available node devices 2700. To do so, the mapping component 2541 may compare the quantity of the node devices 2700 that are currently available to the quantity of node devices 2700 that were involved in most recently storing the data set 2330 within the data file 2110. If these two quantities of the node devices 2700 match, then the mapping component 2541 may make the determination to distribute the data set portions 2732 among the currently available node devices 2700 for processing in a manner that effectively recreates the distribution of the data set portions 2732 that existed at the time the data set 2330 was most recently stored within the data file 2110. More precisely, the mapping component 2541 may distribute each entire encrypted data block 2131 within the payload section 2113 of the data file 2110 (thereby keeping together all data sub-blocks 2133 within each encrypted data block 2131) to a different one of the currently available node devices 2700. However, if these two quantities of the node devices 2700 do not match, then the mapping component 2541 may make the determination to derive a new distribution of individual ones of the data sub-blocks 2133 within each of the encrypted data blocks 2131 within the payload section 2113 of the data file 2110 among the currently available node devices 2700 (to thereby individually distribute the data set portions 2732 without regard to what encrypted data block 2133 they are included within).

Turning to both FIGS. 23B and 23C, to effect either such a distribution of whole encrypted data blocks 2131 or such a distribution of individual ones of the data sub-blocks 2133 among the currently available node devices 2700 for processing, the mapping component 2541 may employ at least a subset of the hashed identifiers associated by the map data 2510 with each of the data sub-blocks 2133. The mapping component 2541 may assign positive integer values as node device identifiers to each of the available node devices 2700, starting with the integer value of 0 and incrementing by the integer value of 1 for each such node device 2700. As depicted, the mapping component 2541 may perform division operations in which hashed identifiers are divided by the quantity of currently available node devices 2700 to derive a modulo value from each such division.

More precisely, where the quantities of currently available node devices 2700 and of the node devices 2700 most recently involved in storing the data set 2330 do match, then for each of the encrypted data blocks 2131, the mapping component 2541 may retrieve a single hashed identifier associated by the map data 2510 with one of the data sub-blocks 2133 within that encrypted data block 2131, and may divide that single hashed identifier by the quantity of currently available node devices 2700 to derive a modulo value. In some embodiments, the single hashed identifier that is retrieved may be selected on the basis of being the hashed identifier present within the first map sub-entry 2513 found to be within the map entry 2511 in the map data 2510 for the encrypted data block 2131. In other embodiments, the single hashed identifier that is retrieved may be selected to be the one associated with the largest data sub-block 2133 within the encrypted data block 2131 (e.g., the largest in terms of containing the most data of all data sub-blocks 2133 within the encrypted data block 2131). In still other embodiments, the single hashed identifier that is retrieved may be selected to be the one associated with the partition 2333 to which the majority of the data within the encrypted data block 2131 belongs. The mapping component 2541 may then match that modulo value to one of the positive integer values of one of the node device identifiers assigned to one of the currently available node devices 2700. The mapping component 2541 may then operate the network interface 2590 to transmit a pointer to the location of that encrypted data block 2131 within the payload section 2113 to that one of the node devices 2700 which had been assigned the matching one of the positive integer values among the earlier assigned node device identifiers.

In embodiments in which the data of the data set 2330 is partitioned, and where there are one or more instances of data belonging to more than one partition 2333 being generated and/or processed by the same node device 2700, there may be a limitation on which partitions 2333 of data of the data set 230 may be generated and/or stored within the same node device 2700. The limitation may be that all partitions 2333 of data that so share the same node device 2700 must have partition labels that beget the same modulo value when the hashed identifiers derived from those partition labels (e.g., by taking hashes of those partition labels) are divided by the quantity of currently available node devices 2700. Thus, the use of only a single hashed identifier associated with only one of the data sub-blocks 2133 within each encrypted data block 2131 in deriving a modulo value by which the distribution of the entire encrypted data block 2131 is determined may rely on this requirement to ensure that it makes no difference which hashed identifier among all of those associated with each of the data sub-blocks 2133 is so used.

Regardless of the exact manner in which a distribution of whole encrypted data blocks 2131 for purposes of processing may be derived, the mapping component 2541 may effect such a distribution by operating the network interface 2590 to transmit, to the available ones of the node devices 2700, one or more pointers to the one or more whole encrypted data blocks 2131 within the payload section 2113 that are assigned thereto. In so doing, the mapping component 2541 may refer to the map data 2510 to identify the locations within the payload section 2113 at which each of the pointers point to enable retrieval of the encrypted data blocks 2131 therefrom. In some embodiments, the mapping component 2541 may derive such locations for each encrypted data block 2131 within the payload section 2113, at least in part, by summing the sizes specified in the map data 2510 for all the encrypted data blocks 2131 that precede each encrypted data block 2131. Each transmission of a pointer may include an indication of the size of the encrypted data block(s) 2131 pointed to by that pointer to enable each of the available ones of the node devices 2700 to retrieve the correct amount of data when retrieving each of the encrypted data blocks 2131 assigned to them from the payload section 2113. Each transmission of a pointer may also include the data block encryption data 2519 needed to decrypt the data block(s) 2131 pointed to by that pointer to generate unencrypted corresponding data set portions 2732 therefrom.

Within each node device 2700 that receives one or more of such transmitted pointers, the retrieval component 2743 and the decryption component 2744 may cooperate to retrieve and decrypt the one or more whole encrypted data blocks 2131 assigned to that node device 2700 in a manner very much like what was earlier described in reference to FIG. 21D.

However, and continuing to refer to both FIGS. 23B and 23C, where the quantities of currently available node devices 2700 and of the node devices 2700 most recently involved in storing the data set 2330 do not match, the mapping component 2541 may derive a distribution of individual data sub-blocks 2133 to different ones of the currently available node devices 2700 for purposes of processing, rather than an assignment of whole encrypted data blocks 2133. More specifically, for each of the data sub-blocks 2133 within each encrypted data block 2131, the mapping component 2541 may retrieve the hashed identifier associated by the map data 2510 with that data sub-block 2133, and may divide the hashed identifier by the quantity of currently available node devices 2700 to derive a modulo value. The mapping component 2541 may then match that modulo value to one of the positive integer values assigned in one of the node device identifiers to one of the currently available node devices 2700, and may assign that data sub-block 2133 to that one of the currently available node devices 2700 for processing based on that match of the modulo value to that positive integer value of one of the node device identifiers.

Such use of the hashed identifiers of each of the data sub-blocks 2133 to derive a distribution of each of the data sub-block 2133, individually, for processing may result in the derivation of a new distribution of the data set portions 1732 for processing that were earlier encrypted and stored as the data sub-blocks 2133, and such a new distribution may be a relatively balanced distribution of data of the data set 2330 among the currently available node devices 2700. Also, such use of the hashed identifiers takes advantage of the fact that all of the data sub-blocks 2133 associated with a single partition 2333 will have the same hashed identifier, and so, such use of modulo values taken of the hashed identifiers ensures that all data belonging to any one of the partitions 2333 will be distributed to the same one of the currently available node devices 2700 for processing, and not among multiple node devices 2700.

However, as previously discussed, the encryption of a partitioned embodiment of the data set 2330 may include generating encrypted data blocks 2131 by encrypting multiple data set portions 2732 together as a set of data sub-blocks 2133 where different ones of the data sub-blocks 2133 may belong to different partitions 2333, as indicated by their different hashed identifiers. Thus, even though different ones of the data sub-blocks 2133 of a particular encrypted data block 2131 may be assigned by the mapping component 2541 to different node devices 2700 for processing based on their different hashed identifiers, the particular data block 2131 must first be decrypted as a whole block before such a distribution of its data sub-blocks 2133 for processing can be performed.

Thus, for ones of the encrypted data blocks 2131 in which all of the data sub-blocks 2133 are of data set portions 2732 that all belong to the same partition 2333, the mapping component 2541 may assign each of such encrypted data blocks 2131 to a node device based on the single hashed identifier that is associated with all of the data sub-blocks 2131 therein. Each of such encrypted data blocks 2131 may then be decrypted within the node device 2700 to which it is distributed, and then all of the data set portions 2732 retrieved from the decryption may also be processed within the same node device 2700. Thus, for such encrypted data blocks 2131, the distribution of those encrypted data blocks 2131 among the node devices 2700 for decryption perfectly matches the distribution of the data sub-blocks 2131 therein for processing.

However, for ones of the encrypted data blocks 2131 in which the data sub-blocks 2133 are of data set portions 2732 that belong to two or more different partitions 2333 such that they are meant to be distributed to two or more different node devices 2700 based on their hashed identifiers, there may be a divergence between the distribution of such encrypted data blocks 2131 for decryption and the distribution of the data sub-blocks 2133 within each of those encrypted data blocks 2131 for processing. Stated differently, for such encrypted data blocks 2131, the mapping component 2541 may, in addition to deriving a distribution of the individual data sub-blocks 2133 within each for processing based on the hashed identifiers, the mapping component 2541 may also derive a different distribution for such encrypted data blocks 2131 for purposes of decryption. Thus, for such encrypted data blocks 2131, there may be a first distribution of the whole encrypted data blocks 2131 to node devices 2700 for purposes of decrypting whole encrypted data blocks 2131, followed by a second distribution of data sub-blocks 2133 therefrom among node devices 2700 for purposes of processing individual data sub-blocks 2133.

To minimize consumption of network bandwidth of the network 2999 and/or other resources of the distributed processing system 2000, the mapping component 2541 may derive the distribution of whole encrypted data blocks 2131 for purposes of decryption by first identifying the ones of the encrypted data blocks 2131 that include data sub-blocks 2133 that are meant to be distributed to two or more different node devices 2700 for processing based on hashed identifiers. For each such identified encrypted data block 2131, the mapping component 2541 may then determine which node device 2700 to distribute that encrypted data block 2131 to for purposes of decryption based on the relative quantities of data therein that are associated with each different hashed identifier. The mapping component 2541 may assign the whole encrypted data block 2131 to be decrypted within the node device 2700 to which the largest proportion of the data therein has also been assigned for purposes of processing as a result of the assignment of the data sub-blocks 2133 therein based on hashed identifiers.

For each encrypted data block 2131 that includes data sub-blocks 2133 that are all assigned to a single node device 2700, the mapping component 2541 may effect the distribution of that data block to that node device 2700 for both purposes of decryption and processing by operating the network interface 2590 to transmit, to that node device 2700, a pointer to that encrypted data block 2131 within the payload section 2113. Within that node device 2700, the retrieval component 2743 and the decryption component 2744 may cooperate to retrieve and decrypt that encrypted data block 2131 in a manner very much like what was earlier described in reference to FIG. 21D.

However, for each encrypted data block 2131 that includes data sub-blocks 2133 that are assigned to two or more node devices 2700, FIG. 23D depicts the manner in which retrieval and decryption of that encrypted data block 2131 may be performed. For purposes of decryption, the mapping component 2541 may effect the first distribution of that encrypted data block to the node device 2700 to which the greatest proportion of the data within that encrypted data block 2131 has been assigned for processing. More specifically, the mapping component may operate the network interface 2590 to transmit, to that node device 2700, a pointer to that encrypted data block 2131 within the payload section 2113. Within that node device 2700, the retrieval component 2743 and the decryption component 2744 may cooperate to retrieve and decrypt that encrypted data block 2131. Then, as also depicted in FIG. 23D, while one or more of the resulting data set portions 2732 are retained within that node device 2700 for processing, one or more others of the resulting data set portions 2732 are retransmitted to the one or more other node devices 2700 to which they were assigned for processing, based on hashed identifiers (more precisely, based on the modulo values generated from dividing the hashed identifiers by the quantity of currently available node devices 2700).

Such exchanges of one or more data set portions 2732 among the node devices 2700 following the decryption of an encrypted data block 2131 may be performed as peer-to-peer transfers between node devices 2700 through the network 2999 without involving the control device 2500. However, to enable such exchanges, the mapping component 2541 of the control device 2500 may transmit, along with a pointer, information concerning which other node device(s) 2700 that one or more of the data set portions 2732 are to be transmitted to following decryption of the encrypted data block 2131 in which they are included as corresponding data sub-block(s) 2133.

It should be noted that, in some embodiments in which multiple node devices 2700 are assigned node device identifiers made up of 0-based positive integer values to support the modulo-based approach described above for distributing partitions of a data set 2330 among those node devices 2700, those very same node device identifiers with their 0-based positive integer values may be used again to support the ordering among the node devices 2700 relied upon in the above-described approaches to grouping blocks of data to form segments 2230.

Returning to FIGS. 13A, 13B and 13C, in various embodiments, each of the processor components 2550 and 2750 may include any of a wide variety of commercially available processors. Further, one or more of these processor components may include multiple processors, a multi-threaded processor, a multi-core processor (whether the multiple processor cores coexist on the same or separate dies), and/or a multi-processor architecture of some other variety by which multiple physically separate processors are linked.

However, in a specific embodiment, the processor component 2750 of each of the node devices 2700, or the processor component 2550 in embodiments that do not include the node devices 2700, may be selected to efficiently perform processing tasks with multiple data set portions 2732 in parallel. By way of example, the processor component 2750 or 2550 may incorporate a single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD) architecture, may incorporate multiple processor cores, and/or may incorporate the ability to support multiple simultaneous threads of execution per processor core.

In various embodiments, each of the storages 2560 and 2760 may be based on any of a wide variety of information storage technologies, including volatile technologies requiring the uninterrupted provision of electric power, and/or including technologies entailing the use of machine-readable storage media that may or may not be removable. Thus, each of these storages may include any of a wide variety of types (or combination of types) of storage device, including without limitation, read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), Double-Data-Rate DRAM (DDR-DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), static RAM (SRAM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory, polymer memory (e.g., ferroelectric polymer memory), ovonic memory, phase change or ferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) memory, magnetic or optical cards, one or more individual ferromagnetic disk drives, non-volatile storage class memory, a plurality of storage devices organized into one or more arrays (e.g., multiple ferromagnetic disk drives organized into a Redundant Array of Independent Disks array, or RAID array), or layered or array).redundant sets of storage devices in which non-volatile storage devices serve to preserve the contents of volatile storage devices in the event of an error condition or power failure (e.g., storage class memory accompanying RAM). It should be noted that although each of these storages is depicted as a single block, one or more of these may include multiple storage devices that may be based on differing storage technologies. Thus, for example, one or more of each of these depicted storages may represent a combination of an optical drive or flash memory card reader by which programs and/or data may be stored and conveyed on some form of machine-readable storage media, a ferromagnetic disk drive to store programs and/or data locally for a relatively extended period, and one or more volatile solid state memory devices enabling relatively quick access to programs and/or data (e.g., SRAM or DRAM). It should also be noted that each of these storages may be made up of multiple storage components based on identical storage technology, but which may be maintained separately as a result of specialization in use (e.g., some DRAM devices employed as a main storage while other DRAM devices employed as a distinct frame buffer of a graphics controller).

However, in a specific embodiment, the storage 2760 of one or more of the node devices 2700 (or of the controller 2507) that stores one or more of the data set portions 1732, or the storage 2560 of the control device 2500 in embodiments that do not include the node devices 2700, may be implemented with a redundant array of independent discs (RAID) of a RAID level selected to provide fault tolerance to prevent loss of one or more of these datasets and/or to provide increased speed in accessing one or more of these datasets.

In various embodiments, each of the input devices 2520 and 2720 may each be any of a variety of types of input device that may each employ any of a wide variety of input detection and/or reception technologies. Examples of such input devices include, and are not limited to, microphones, remote controls, stylus pens, card readers, finger print readers, virtual reality interaction gloves, graphical input tablets, joysticks, keyboards, retina scanners, the touch input components of touch screens, trackballs, environmental sensors, and/or either cameras or camera arrays to monitor movement of persons to accept commands and/or data provided by those persons via gestures and/or facial expressions. In various embodiments, each of the displays 2580 and 2780 may each be any of a variety of types of display device that may each employ any of a wide variety of visual presentation technologies. Examples of such a display device includes, and is not limited to, a cathode-ray tube (CRT), an electroluminescent (EL) panel, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a gas plasma display, etc. In some embodiments, the display 2580 of the coordinating device 2500 and/or the display 2780 of the viewing device 2700 may be a touchscreen display such that the input device 2520 may be incorporated into the display 2580 and/or the input device 2720 may be incorporated into the display 2780. In such embodiments, the input device 2520 and/or the input device 2720 may be a touch-sensitive component of the display 2580 and/or the display 2780, respectively.

In various embodiments, the network interfaces 2590 and 2790 may employ any of a wide variety of communications technologies enabling these devices to be coupled to other devices as has been described. Each of these interfaces includes circuitry providing at least some of the requisite functionality to enable such coupling. However, each of these interfaces may also be at least partially implemented with sequences of instructions executed by corresponding ones of the processor components (e.g., to implement a protocol stack or other features). Where electrically and/or optically conductive cabling is employed, these interfaces may employ timings and/or protocols conforming to any of a variety of industry standards, including without limitation, RS-232C, RS-422, USB, Ethernet (IEEE-802.3) or IEEE-1394. Where the use of wireless transmissions is entailed, these interfaces may employ timings and/or protocols conforming to any of a variety of industry standards, including without limitation, IEEE 802.11a, 802.11ad, 802.11ah, 802.11ax, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.16, 802.20 (commonly referred to as “Mobile Broadband Wireless Access”); Bluetooth; ZigBee; or a cellular radiotelephone service such as GSM with General Packet Radio Service (GSM/GPRS), CDMA/1×RTT, Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution (EDGE), Evolution Data Only/Optimized (EV-DO), Evolution For Data and Voice (EV-DV), High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), 4G LTE, 5G, NVMe, PCIe, etc.

However, in a specific embodiment, the network interface 2790 of one or more of the node devices 2700 that stores one or more of the data set portions 2732, or of the network interface 2590 of the control device 2500 in embodiments that do not include the node devices 2700, may be implemented with multiple copper-based or fiber-optic based network interface ports to provide redundant and/or parallel pathways in exchanging one or more of the data set portions 2732 with the one or more storage devices 2100.

FIGS. 24A through 24D illustrates an example embodiment of a logic flow 3100.

The logic flow 3100 may be representative of some or all of the operations executed by one or more embodiments described herein. More specifically, the logic flow 3100 may illustrate operations performed by the processor component 2750 in executing the control routine 2740, and/or performed by other component(s) of at least one of the node devices 2700.

At 3110, a processor component of a node device of a distributed processing system (e.g., the processor component 2750 of one of the node devices 2700 of the distributed processing system 2000) may receive, via a network and from a control device or controller (e.g., via the network 2999, and from the control device 2500 or the controller 2507 incorporated into another node device 2700), a node device identifier assigned to the node device. Alternatively or additionally, the processor component of the node device may receive, via the network and from the control device or controller, an indication of a one or more processing tasks to be performed by the processor component. At 3112, the processor component 3112 may complete its performance of the assigned processing task(s), thereby modifying or generating one or more portions of a data set (e.g., one or more data set portions 2732 of a data set 2330) of non-partitioned data that are to be stored within as one or more encrypted data blocks within a data file within one or more storage devices (e.g., one or more of the encrypted data blocks 2131 within the data file 2110 within the one or more storage devices 2100).

At 3120, the processor component may encrypt the one or more data set portions to generate one or more encrypted data blocks. In so doing, for each encrypted data block to be generated, the processor component may use a combination of the total size of the one or more data portions that are to be encrypted together to generate each encrypted data block and an encryption cipher separately generated for each encrypted data block. As previously discussed, such an encryption cipher may be derived from a salt value that is separately randomly generated for each encrypted data block (such that no two encrypted data blocks share the same salt value), and from a pass phrase (e.g., the pass phrase 2779) to generate each encrypted data block. As also previously discussed, the pass phrase may be securely maintained by the control device (or controller) and a grid of node devices, but is never transmitted to the one or more storage devices in which the data set is to be persisted.

At 3122, the processor component may transmit an indication that the one or more assigned processing tasks have been completed. Alternatively or additionally, the processor component may transmit an indication of the total size of the encrypted data blocks within the node device that are of the data set to be stored. At 3124, the processor component may then await a response from the controller.

At 3130, the processor component may check whether it receives instructions from the control device or controller to transfer its encrypted data blocks of the data set to another node device. If so at 3130, then at 3132, the processor component may cooperate with the processor component of the other node device to do so. At 3134, the processor component may check if the data of the data set is partitioned data. If so at 3134, then at 3138, the processor may also transmit, for each of the encrypted data blocks transmitted to the other node device, indications of the data sizes of each of the data sub-blocks therein and the hashed identifiers of each of the data sub-blocks therein (e.g., data sub-blocks 2133 of a data block 2130 or an encrypted data block 2131). However, if not at 3134, then at 3136, the processor may also transmit the data size for each of the encrypted data blocks transmitted to the other node device.

However, if at 3130, the processor component does not receive instructions to transmit its encrypted data blocks to another node device, then at 3140, the processor component may check whether it receives instructions to cooperate to receive encrypted data blocks from another node device. If so at 3140, then at 3142, the processor component may cooperate with the processor component of the other node device to do so. At 3144, the processor component may check if the data of the data set is partitioned data. If so at 3144, then at 3148, the processor may also cooperate with the processor of the other node device to receive, for each of the encrypted data blocks received from the other node device, indications of the data sizes of each of the data sub-blocks therein and the hashed identifiers of each of the data sub-blocks therein. However, if not at 3144, then at 3146, the processor may cooperate with the processor of the other node device to also receive the data size for each of the encrypted data blocks received from the other node device.

At 3150, as part of registering each of its encrypted data blocks of the data set, the processor component may transmit at least the data block encryption data for each to the control device or controller. At 3152, the processor component may check if the data of the data set is partitioned data. If so at 3152, then at 3156, the processor may also transmit, for each of its encrypted data blocks, indications of the data sizes of each of the data sub-blocks therein and the hashed identifiers of each of the data sub-blocks therein to the control device or controller. However, if not at 3152, then at 3154, the processor may also transmit the data size for each of its encrypted data blocks transmitted to the control device or controller.

At 3160, the processor component may check whether it receives encrypted map data (e.g., the encrypted map base 2116 and/or any encrypted map extensions 2118) and/or encrypted metadata (e.g., the encrypted metadata 2336) from the control device or controller. If so at 3160, then at 3162, the processor component may group the received encrypted map data and/or encrypted metadata together with its one or more encrypted data blocks to form one or more segments (e.g., one or more of the segments 2230). If not at 3160, then the processor may group the one or more encrypted data blocks to form one or more segments.

At 3170, the processor component may check whether one of the one or more segments just formed is smaller in size than a minimum threshold size that may be imposed by the one or more storage devices. If so at 3170, then at 3172, the processor component may check whether the imposition of the minimum threshold size includes an allowance for one segment of the data set to be smaller than the minimum threshold size. If not at 3172, then the processor component may pad the one segment that is smaller than the minimum threshold size with null values, zero values and/or some other form of padding value to bring the size of that segment up to the minimum threshold size.

Regardless of whether there was a segment smaller than the minimum threshold size at 3170, or whether having such a segment was permitted at 3172, or whether such a segment was padded at 3174, at 3180, the processor component may check whether it is to receive a pointer from the control device or controller pointing to a location within the data file at which the processor component is store its segment(s). If so at 3180, then at 3182, the processor component may transmit its segment(s) to the one or more storage devices with an instruction for the one or more storage devices to store them at the location indicated by the pointer.

However, if at 3180, the processor component is not to receive such a pointer from the control device or controller, then at 3190, the processor component may transmit each of its segment(s) to the one or more storage devices. At 3192, the processor component may receive, from the one or more storage devices, a segment identifier for each segment that the processor component transmitted to the one or more storage devices (e.g., one of the segment identifiers 2214). At 3194, the processor component may transmit the one or more segment identifiers to the control device or controller. As previously discussed, the control device or controller may store the segment identifiers it receives from all of the node devices that transmit segments of the data set to the one or more storage devices within a segment identity vector (e.g., the segment identity vector 2216), which the control device or controller may then transmit to the one or more storage devices to use in maintaining a correct order among the contents of the payload section of the data file.

FIG. 25 illustrates an example embodiment of a logic flow 3200. The logic flow 3200 may be representative of some or all of the operations executed by one or more embodiments described herein. More specifically, the logic flow 3200 may illustrate operations performed by the processor component 2750 in executing the control routine 2740, and/or performed by other component(s) of at least one of the node devices 2700.

At 3210, a processor component of a node device (e.g., the processor component 2750 of one of the node devices 2700) may receive, from a control device or a controller implemented within another node device (e.g., the control device 2500 or the controller 2507 within another of the node devices 2700), a pointer to an encrypted data block of a data set stored within a data file (e.g., one of the encrypted data blocks 2131 of the data set 2330 stored within the data file 2110) to be retrieved therefrom. Along with the pointer, the processor component may also receive data block encryption data needed to decrypt the encrypted data block.

At 3212, if the data of the data set is not partitioned, then at 3214, the processor component may also receive an indication of the size of the encrypted data block along with the pointer. However, at 3212, if the data of the data set is partitioned, then at 3216, the processor component may also receive indications of the hashed identifier and size of each of the data sub-blocks (e.g., the data sub-blocks 2133) that are included within the encrypted data block, and an indication of the size of the encrypted data block, along with the pointer.

At 3220, the processor component may transmit a request to the one or more storage devices to provide the encrypted data block, starting at the location in the data file pointed to by the pointer, and including the quantity of data specified by the indication of size of the encrypted data block that accompanied the pointer. At 3230, the requested encrypted data block may be received at the node device from the one or more storage devices.

At 3240, the processor component may decrypt the received encrypted data block using the size of the encrypted data block and a decryption cipher derived from the data block encryption data provided by the control device or controller along with a pass phrase (e.g., the pass phrase 2779). As previously discussed, in a manner similar to the encryption cipher, the decryption cipher may be derived based on the pass phrase and the salt value originally used in the original encryption operation that generated the encrypted data block, with at least the salt value having been provided in the data block encryption data.

At 3250, if the data of the data set is partitioned data, then the processor component may check at 3252 whether there are any data set portions that were included in the encrypted data block as data sub-blocks (e.g., one or more data set portions 2732 included as data sub-blocks 2133) that have been assigned by the control device or controller to be processed by another node device. As previously discussed, where a data set of partitioned data is retrieved from storage, and the quantity of node devices currently available differs from the quantity of node devices that were involved in the most recent storage of the data set, then the control device or controller may derive a distribution of the data set for purposes of processing based on assigning individual ones of the one or more data sub-blocks that may be included in each encrypted data block. However, as also previously discussed, each of the encrypted data blocks may be required to be decrypted as a whole, such that one or more of the encrypted data blocks may need to be distributed to node devices in a first distribution for purposes of decryption, before the data sub-blocks therein may then be distributed in a second distribution to peer node devices to which they have been assigned for processing

Thus, at 3252, if there are one or more data set portions that were included in the encrypted data block as data sub-blocks that are have been assigned to another node device, then at 3254, the processor component may transmit such data set portion(s) to such other node device(s) along with their associated hashed identifiers.

FIGS. 26A, 26B, 26C and 26D, together, illustrate an example embodiment of a logic flow 3300. The logic flow 3300 may be representative of some or all of the operations executed by one or more embodiments described herein. More specifically, the logic flow 3300 may illustrate operations performed by the processor component 2550 in executing the control routine 2540, and/or performed by other component(s) of the control device 2500 or of the controller 2507 implemented within at least one of the node devices 2700.

At 3310, a processor component of a control device or a controller implemented within a node device of a distributed processing system (e.g., the processor component 2550 of the control device 2500 or of the controller 2507 implemented within one of the node devices 2700 of the distributed processing system 2000) may transmit a node device identifier to each multiple node devices of the distributed processing system. As previously discussed, such a set of node device identifiers may assign an unbroken ordered series of identifier values, such as a series of integers incremented by the value of 1. Alternatively or additionally, the processor component may transmit an assignment of one or more processing tasks to each of the node devices to perform that alters or generates a portion of a data set within each of the node devices (e.g., data set portions 2732). At 3312, the processor component may receive, from each of the node devices, an indication of completion the assigned processing task(s) and/or an indication of a total size of blocks of data to be stored as a result of completion of the assigned processing task(s).

At 3320, the processor component may derive a set of block exchanges by which some of the node devices may transfer their encrypted data blocks to others of the node devices, resulting in the grouping of the encrypted data blocks within a subset of the node devices to form segments that each fit minimum and/or maximum threshold size requirements that may be imposed on the transmission of units of data of the data set to one or more storage devices. At 3322, the processor component may transmit instructions to perform the set of block exchanges to at least the ones of the node devices that are to be involved in performing the set of block exchanges. At 3324, the processor component may receive indications of completion of each transfer of encrypted data block(s) of the set of block transfers.

At 3330, the processor component may transmit, to the subset of node devices that now have the encrypted data blocks as a result of the performance of the set of block transfers, instructions to perform in-order registration of the encrypted data blocks. At 3332, the processor component may receive, as part of registration, data block encryption data for each encrypted data block within each node device of the subset of node devices. At 3334, if the data of the data set is partitioned data, then at 3336, the processor component may also receive, for each such encrypted data block, indications of size and hashed identifiers for each data sub-block therein (e.g., each data sub-block 2133). However, if at 3334, the data of the data set is not partitioned data, then at 3338, the processor component may receive an indication of the size of each encrypted data block. As has been discussed, the processor of the control device or controller may coordinate these registration transmissions with the subset of node devices so that these registration transmissions are performed in an order that follows the ordering among the node devices that is defined by the node device identifiers. Also, each node device of the subset that has multiple encrypted data blocks may transmit such information concerning the encrypted data blocks that it has to the control device or controller in an order the follows the ordering among those encrypted data blocks that stems from the ordering among the node devices.

At 3340, the processor component may use the incoming information during registration to generate entries in map data (e.g., the map data 2510) for the encrypted data blocks in an order that follows the ordering among the encrypted data blocks. At 3342, the processor component may encrypt the map data, thereby generating either an encrypted map base or a combination of an encrypted map base and encrypted map extensions (e.g., the encrypted map base 2116 and encrypted map extensions 2118). At 3344, the processor component may encrypt the metadata for the data set to generate encrypted metadata (e.g., the encrypted metadata 2336).

At 3350, the processor component may check whether the total size of the combination of the encrypted map base, any encrypted map extensions and the encrypted metadata is sufficient to meet the minimum threshold size. If so at 3350, then at 3352, the processor component may group together this combination of information about the data set into one or more segments. At 3354, the processor component may transmit instructions to each of the node devices of the subset of node devices that have encrypted data blocks following the performance of the set of block exchanges to each group their encrypted data blocks into one or more segments that each fit the minimum and/or maximum thresholds sizes, and to proceed with storing those segments by transmitting them to the one or more storage devices.

If, at 3360, the processor component is to provide pointers to each of the node devices of the subset of node devices for use in storing their segments, then at 3362, the processor component may derive a pointer for use in storing the segment(s) generated by the processor component from the encrypted map base, any encrypted map extensions and/or the encrypted metadata. At 3364, the processor component may transmit the segment(s) so generated by the processor component to the one or more storage device(s) with instructions to store the segment(s) at the location indicated by the pointer. At 3366, the processor component may derive pointers for use by the subset of node devices in storing their segments. At 3368, the processor component may transmit each of those pointers to its corresponding node device of the subset of node devices.

However, if at 3360, the processor component is not to provide pointers, then at 3370, the processor component may transmit the segment(s) generated by the processor component from the encrypted map base, any encrypted map extensions and/or the encrypted metadata to the one or more storage device(s) to be stored thereby. At 3372, the processor component may receive, from the one or more storage devices, a segment identifier (e.g., one of the segment identifiers 2214) in response to the transmission of each the segments generated by the processor component to the one or more storage devices for storage. At 3374, the processor component may receive, from each of the node devices of the subset of node devices, one or more segment identifiers received by each of those node devices from the one or more storage devices in response to the transmission of each segment to the one or more storage devices by one of those node devices. At 3376, the processor component may store all of the received segment identifiers within a segment identity vector (e.g., the segment identity vector 2216) in an order that follows the ordering of the segments, which corresponds to the order among the encrypted data blocks that stems at least partially from the ordering among the node devices as defined by the node device identifiers. At 3378, the processor component may transmit the segment identity vector to the one or more storage devices for use thereby in organizing the contents of the segments correctly within the payload section of the data file therein.

However, if at 3350, the total size of the combination of the encrypted map base, any encrypted map extensions and the encrypted metadata is not sufficient to meet the minimum threshold size, then at 3356, the processor component may transmit that combination of information about the data set to the first node device in the ordering among the node devices (e.g., the lowest-order node device) that are in the subset of the node devices that have encrypted data blocks following the performance of the set of block exchanges. By so doing, that node device is able to combine such information about the data set with one or more encrypted data blocks to form at least one segment that is large enough to meet the minimum threshold size. At 3358, the processor component may transmit instructions, to the subset of node devices to group their encrypted data blocks into segments that each fit the minimum and/or maximum thresholds sizes, including the one node device that is to so group its encrypted data blocks together with the combination of the encrypted map base, any encrypted map extensions and the encrypted metadata.

If, at 3380, the processor component is to provide pointers to each of the node devices of the subset of node devices for use in storing their segments, then at 3382, the processor component may derive pointers for use by the subset of node devices in storing their segments. At 3384, the processor component may transmit each of those pointers to its corresponding node device of the subset of node devices.

However, if at 3380, the processor component is not to provide pointers, then at 3390, the processor component may receive, from each of the node devices of the subset of node devices, one or more segment identifiers received by each of those node devices from the one or more storage devices in response to the transmission of each segment to the one or more storage devices by one of those node devices. At 3392, the processor component may store all of the received segment identifiers within a segment identity vector (e.g., the segment identity vector 2216) in an order that follows the ordering of the segments, which corresponds to the order among the encrypted data blocks that stems at least partially from the ordering among the node devices as defined by the node device identifiers. At 3394, the processor component may transmit the segment identity vector to the one or more storage devices for use thereby in organizing the contents of the segments correctly within the payload section of the data file therein.

FIGS. 27A, 27B and 27C, together, illustrate an example embodiment of a logic flow 3500. The logic flow 3500 may be representative of some or all of the operations executed by one or more embodiments described herein. More specifically, the logic flow 3500 may illustrate operations performed by the processor component 2550 in executing the control routine 2540, and/or performed by other component(s) of the control device 2500 or of the controller 2507 implemented within at least one of the node devices 2700.

At 3510, a processor component of a control device or a controller implemented within a node device (e.g., the processor component 2550 of the control device 2500 or of the controller 2507) may receive indications from multiple node devices (e.g., the node devices 2700) concerning their current availability to perform processing tasks on a portion of a data set (e.g., a data set portion 2732 of the data set 2330). As previously discussed, each node device may recurringly transmit indications of its current status, including its availability to perform processing tasks on a portion of a data set.

At 3512, the processor component may retrieve, from a data file maintained within one or more storage devices (e.g., the data file 2110 maintained by the one or more storage devices 2100), an encrypted map of encrypted data blocks and/or data sub-blocks, and encrypted metadata of a data set (e.g., the encrypted map base 2116 and any encrypted map extensions 2118, and the encrypted metadata 2336). Additionally, the processor component may retrieve an indication of the quantity of node devices that were involved in the most recent storage of the data set in the data file (e.g., the data header 1112, or again, the encrypted metadata 2336).

At 3514, the processor component may decrypt the encrypted map to obtain an unencrypted map (e.g., the unencrypted map base 2115 and any unencrypted map extensions 2117 into which the map data 2510 may have been divided for storage), and the encrypted metadata to obtain unencrypted metadata (e.g., the metadata 2335).

If at 3520, the data of the data set is not partitioned, then at 3522, the processor component may retrieve a single map entry corresponding to a single encrypted data block from the map (e.g., a single map entry 2511 of the map data 2510). At 3523, the processor component may derive the location within the data file of an encrypted data block that corresponds to the map entry based on a total of the sizes of all preceding encrypted data blocks indicated in all of the corresponding preceding map entries in the map. As previously discussed, the order in which the map entries are arranged within the map may correspond to the order in which the encrypted data blocks are arranged in the data file.

At 3527, the processor component may select one of the available node devices in a round robin manner to which to distribute the encrypted data block. At 3528, the processor component may transmit a pointer, to the selected node device, that points to the location of the encrypted data block in the data file. Along with the pointer, the processor component may also transmit data block encryption data retrieved from the map entry to enable the selected node device to decrypt the encrypted data block

At 3530, if there is another map entry in the map, then the processor component may return to retrieving another map entry at 3530.

However, if at 3520, the data of the data set is partitioned, then at 3540, the processor component may assign a series of increasing positive integer values (specifically, the series 0, 1, 2, 3, etc., created by repeated incrementing by the positive integer value of 1) to each of the available node devices. At 3550, the processor may check whether the quantity of currently available node devices matches the quantity of node devices indicated in the data file as having been involved in the most recent storage of the data set within the data file.

If at 3550, the two quantities of node devices match, then at 3552, the processor component may retrieve a single map entry corresponding to a single encrypted data block from the map. At 3553, the processor component may derive the location within the data file of an encrypted data block that corresponds to the map entry based on a total of the sizes of all preceding encrypted data blocks indicated in all of the corresponding preceding map entries in the map.

At 3557, the processor component may divide the hashed identifier of one of the data sub-blocks by the quantity of currently available node devices to generate a modulo value. As previously discussed, in some embodiments, the hashed identifier that is so divided may be belong to the data sub-block that is listed in the first map sub-entry within the retrieved map entry for the encrypted data block. Alternatively, in other embodiments, the hashed identifier that is so divided may be belong to the data sub-bock that is determined to contain the most data of all of the data sub-blocks within the encrypted data block (based on the sub-block sizes specified within the retrieved map entry), or may be associated with the partition to which most of the data within encrypted data block belongs.

At 3558, the processor component may transmit a pointer that points to the location of the encrypted data block in the data file to the one of the available node devices that was assigned (at 3540) an integer value from the series of integer values that matches the modulo value derived at 3557.

At 3560, if there is another map entry in the map, then the processor component may return to retrieving another map entry at 3552.

However, if at 3550, the two quantities of node devices do not match, then at 3570, the processor component may retrieve a single map entry corresponding to a single encrypted data block from the map. At 3582, the processor component may derive the location within the data file of an encrypted data block that corresponds to the map entry based on a total of the sizes of all preceding encrypted data blocks indicated in all of the corresponding preceding map entries in the map.

At 3580, if the hashed identifiers for all of the data sub-blocks within the encrypted data block are identical, then all of the data of the data set that is within all of the data sub-blocks of the encrypted data block is to be distributed to the same node device for purposes of processing. Accordingly, at 3582, the processor component may divide the one hashed identifier that is shared by all of the data sub-blocks by the quantity of currently available node devices to generate a modulo value.

However, at 3580, not all of the hashed identifiers for all of the data sub-blocks within the encrypted data block are identical, then it may be that data of the data set within different ones of the data sub-blocks of the encrypted data block is to be distributed to different node devices for purposes of processing. However, to enable such distribution of the data within different ones of the data sub-blocks to different ones of multiple node devices, the entirety of the encrypted data block must first be decrypted. Accordingly, at 3584, the processor component may determine which one of those multiple node devices to distribute the whole encrypted data block to for purposes of decryption by dividing the one hashed identifier that is associated with the largest proportion of the data within encrypted data block (based on the manner in which the data therein is divided up among the data sub-blocks) by the quantity of currently available node devices to generate a modulo value.

At 3586, the processor component may transmit a pointer that points to the location of the encrypted data block in the data file to the one of the available node devices that was assigned (at 3540) an integer value from the series of integer values that matches the modulo value derived at either 3582 or 3584.

At 3590, if there is another map entry in the map, then the processor component may return to retrieving another map entry at 3570.

In various embodiments, the division of processing and/or storage resources among the devices, and/or the API architectures supporting communications among the devices, may be configured to and/or selected to conform to any of a variety of standards for distributed processing, including without limitation, IEEE P2413, the ALLJOYN® standard, the IOTIVITY™ standard, etc. By way of example, a subset of API and/or other architectural features of one or more of such standards may be employed to implement the relatively minimal degree of coordination described herein to provide greater efficiency in parallelizing processing of data, while minimizing exchanges of coordinating information that may lead to undesired instances of serialization among processes. However, it should be noted that the parallelization of storage, retrieval and/or processing of data set portions of data set(s) are not dependent on, nor constrained by, existing API architectures and/or supporting communications protocols. More broadly, there is nothing in the manner in which data set(s) may be organized in storage, transmission and/or distribution via a network that is bound to existing API architectures or protocols.

Some systems may use the HADOOP® framework, an open-source framework for storing and analyzing big data in a distributed computing environment. Some systems may use cloud computing, which can enable ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. Some grid systems may be implemented as a multi-node HADOOP® cluster, as understood by a person of skill in the art. The APACHE™ HADOOP® framework is an open-source software framework for distributed computing.

Implementing some examples at least in part by using machine-learning models can reduce the total number of processing iterations, time, memory, electrical power, or any combination of these consumed by a computing device when analyzing data. Some machine-learning approaches may be more efficiently and speedily executed and processed with machine-learning specific processors (e.g., not a generic CPU). For example, some of these processors can include a graphical processing unit (GPU), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) by Google, and/or some other machine-learning specific processor that implements one or more neural networks using semiconductor (e.g., silicon (Si), gallium arsenide(GaAs)) devices.

What has been described above includes examples of the disclosed architecture. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components and/or methodologies, but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinations and permutations are possible. Accordingly, the novel architecture is intended to embrace all such alterations, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. 

1. An apparatus comprising a processor component and a storage to store instructions that, when executed by the processor component, cause the processor component to perform operations comprising: transmit, from a control device, and to multiple node devices via a network, a set of node device identifiers to assign each node device of the multiple node devices a different node device identifier of the set of node device identifiers, wherein: the set of node device identifiers defines an ascending or descending series of numerical values that define an ordering among the multiple node devices; and the ordering among the node devices defines a corresponding ordering among subsets of multiple blocks of data of a data set that are distributed among the multiple node devices; receive, from the multiple node devices via the network, an indication of a total size of the subset of the multiple blocks of data distributed to each node device of the multiple node devices; derive, by the processor component, a set of block exchanges based on the total sizes of the subsets received from the multiple node devices and a minimum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to one or more storage devices, wherein: at least one node device of the multiple node devices serves as a source device to transmit one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data to another node device of the multiple node devices that serves as a target node device; following a performance of the set of block exchanges, the data set remains distributed to a reduced number of the multiple node devices; either each node device of the reduced number of node devices, or each node device but one of the reduced number of node devices, stores an amount of the data of the data set that is greater than the minimum threshold size; and the set of block exchanges follows a block exchange rule that each transfer of one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data in the set of block exchanges is to be from a lower-order source node device and to a higher-order target node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices, or that each transfer of one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data is to be from a higher-order source node device and to a lower-order target node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices; generate a block exchange vector that identifies each source node device and each target node device in the set of block exchanges based on the set of node device identifiers; and transmit the block exchange vector to the multiple node devices as a block exchange instruction to cause a performance of the set of block exchanges among the multiple node devices.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the data of the data set comprises partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data; each partition of the set of partitions is provided with a unique label of a set of labels; the set of node device identifiers defines a 0-based ascending set of positive integers incremented by a value of 1; and prior to using the set of node device identifiers to derive the set of block exchanges, the processor component is caused to use the set of node device identifiers to distribute the data set among the multiple node devices based on matches between the set of node device identifiers and a set of modulo values derived from the set of labels through dividing a hash value from a hash taken of each label by a quantity of the multiple node devices.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein, in response to receiving the block exchange instruction, a node device of the multiple node devices performs operations comprising: analyze the block exchange vector in view of the node device identifier assigned to the node device to determine whether the node device is to serve as a source node device or a target node device; in response to a determination that the node device is to serve as a source node device, employ the block exchange rule in parsing the block exchange vector to identify the corresponding target node device; or in response to a determination that the node device is to serve as a target node device, employ the block exchange rule in parsing the block exchange vector to identify the corresponding source node device.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, in response to receiving the block exchange instruction, and in response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a target node to receive a subset of the multiple blocks of data from another node device that is to serve as a source node in the set of block exchanges, a node device of the multiple node devices performs operations comprising: transmit a request, via the network and to the source node device, to transmit the subset to the node device; and receive, from the source node device via the network, and along with the subset, an indication of a size of each block of data of the subset or of each sub-block of data within each block of data of the subset.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, in response to receiving the block exchange instruction, and in response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a source node to transmit a subset of the multiple blocks of data to another device that is to serve as a target node device in the set of block exchanges, a node device of the multiple node devices performs operations comprising: receive, from the other device via the network, a request to transmit the subset to the other device; and transmit, to the other device via the network, the subset and an indication of size of each block of data of the subset or each sub-block of data within each block of data of the subset.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor component is caused to perform operations comprising: as part of a registration of the multiple blocks of data by the reduced number of node devices following the performance of the set of block exchanges, receive from each node device of the reduced number of node devices, and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, an indication of a size of the block of data or indications of a size of each sub-block of the block of data; and generate, based at least on the indications of size received during registration, map data indicative of an ordering among the multiple blocks of data by which the multiple blocks of data are to be stored within the one or more storage devices, and which stems from the ordering among the subsets of the multiple blocks of data.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the data of the data set comprises partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data; as part of the registration of the multiple blocks of data, the processor component is caused to receive, for each sub-block of each block of data, a hashed value indicative of a partition with which the sub-block is associated; and the processor component is caused to generate, within the map data and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, a separate map entry that comprises the size and hashed value of each sub-block within the block of data.
 8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the data of the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form, wherein each block of data is to be separately encrypted by one of the node devices of the multiple node devices; as part of the registration of multiple blocks of data, the processor component is caused to receive, for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, data block encryption data by which the block of data is encrypted; and the processor component is caused to generate, within the map data and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, a separate map entry that comprises the data block encryption data for the block of data.
 9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the processor component is caused to perform operations comprising: determine a total size of a combination of at least the map data and of a metadata indicative of at least one of whether the data of the data set comprises partitioned data and whether the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form; determine whether the total size of the combination meets the minimum threshold size; and in response to a determination that the combination does not meet the minimum threshold size, perform operations comprising: identify a lowest-order node device or a highest-order node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices that is among the reduced number of node devices; and transmit, to the identified lowest-order node device or highest-order node device, and via the network, the combination of the map data and the metadata.
 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processor component is caused, in response to a determination that the combination does meet the minimum threshold size, to perform operations comprising: form one or more segments for transmission to the one or more storage devices from the combination of the map data and the metadata that each fit within the minimum threshold size and a maximum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to one or more storage devices; and transmit, to the one or more storage devices via the network, the one or more segments at least partially in parallel with multiple other segments formed from the multiple blocks of data by the reduced number of node devices.
 11. A computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, the computer-program product including instructions operable to cause a processor component to perform operations comprising: transmit, from a control device, and to multiple node devices via a network, a set of node device identifiers to assign each node device of the multiple node devices a different node device identifier of the set of node device identifiers, wherein: the set of node device identifiers defines an ascending or descending series of numerical values that define an ordering among the multiple node devices; and the ordering among the node devices defines a corresponding ordering among subsets of multiple blocks of data of a data set that are distributed among the multiple node devices; receive, from the multiple node devices via the network, an indication of a total size of the subset of the multiple blocks of data distributed to each node device of the multiple node devices; derive, by the processor component, a set of block exchanges based on the total sizes of the subsets received from the multiple node devices and a minimum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to one or more storage devices, wherein: at least one node device of the multiple node devices serves as a source device to transmit one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data to another node device of the multiple node devices that serves as a target node device; following a performance of the set of block exchanges, the data set remains distributed to a reduced number of the multiple node devices; either each node device of the reduced number of node devices, or each node device but one of the reduced number of node devices, stores an amount of the data of the data set that is greater than the minimum threshold size; and the set of block exchanges follows a block exchange rule that each transfer of one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data in the set of block exchanges is to be from a lower-order source node device and to a higher-order target node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices, or that each transfer of one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data is to be from a higher-order source node device and to a lower-order target node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices; generate a block exchange vector that identifies each source node device and each target node device in the set of block exchanges based on the set of node device identifiers; and transmit the block exchange vector to the multiple node devices as a block exchange instruction to cause a performance of the set of block exchanges among the multiple node devices.
 12. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein: the data of the data set comprises partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data; each partition of the set of partitions is provided with a unique label of a set of labels; the set of node device identifiers defines a 0-based ascending set of positive integers incremented by a value of 1; and prior to using the set of node device identifiers to derive the set of block exchanges, the processor component is caused to use the set of node device identifiers to distribute the data set among the multiple node devices based on matches between the set of node device identifiers and a set of modulo values derived from the set of labels through dividing a hash value from a hash taken of each label by a quantity of the multiple node devices.
 13. The computer-program product of claim 12, wherein, in response to receiving the block exchange instruction, a node device of the multiple node devices performs operations comprising: analyze the block exchange vector in view of the node device identifier assigned to the node device to determine whether the node device is to serve as a source node device or a target node device; in response to a determination that the node device is to serve as a source node device, employ the block exchange rule in parsing the block exchange vector to identify the corresponding target node device; or in response to a determination that the node device is to serve as a target node device, employ the block exchange rule in parsing the block exchange vector to identify the corresponding source node device.
 14. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein, in response to receiving the block exchange instruction, and in response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a target node to receive a subset of the multiple blocks of data from another node device that is to serve as a source node in the set of block exchanges, a node device of the multiple node devices performs operations comprising: transmit a request, via the network and to the source node device, to transmit the subset to the node device; and receive, from the source node device via the network, and along with the subset, an indication of a size of each block of data of the subset or of each sub-block of data within each block of data of the subset.
 15. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein, in response to receiving the block exchange instruction, and in response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a source node to transmit a subset of the multiple blocks of data to another device that is to serve as a target node device in the set of block exchanges, a node device of the multiple node devices performs operations comprising: receive, from the other device via the network, a request to transmit the subset to the other device; and transmit, to the other device via the network, the subset and an indication of size of each block of data of the subset or each sub-block of data within each block of data of the subset.
 16. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein the processor component is caused to perform operations comprising: as part of a registration of the multiple blocks of data by the reduced number of node devices following the performance of the set of block exchanges, receive from each node device of the reduced number of node devices, and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, an indication of a size of the block of data or indications of a size of each sub-block of the block of data; and generate, based at least on the indications of size received during registration, map data indicative of an ordering among the multiple blocks of data by which the multiple blocks of data are to be stored within the one or more storage devices, and which stems from the ordering among the subsets of the multiple blocks of data.
 17. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein: the data of the data set comprises partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data; as part of the registration of the multiple blocks of data, the processor component is caused to receive, for each sub-block of each block of data, a hashed value indicative of a partition with which the sub-block is associated; and the processor component is caused to generate, within the map data and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, a separate map entry that comprises the size and hashed value of each sub-block within the block of data.
 18. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein: the data of the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form, wherein each block of data is to be separately encrypted by one of the node devices of the multiple node devices; as part of the registration of multiple blocks of data, the processor component is caused to receive, for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, data block encryption data by which the block of data is encrypted; and the processor component is caused to generate, within the map data and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, a separate map entry that comprises the data block encryption data for the block of data.
 19. The computer-program product of claim 16, wherein the processor component is caused to perform operations comprising: determine a total size of a combination of at least the map data and of a metadata indicative of at least one of whether the data of the data set comprises partitioned data and whether the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form; determine whether the total size of the combination meets the minimum threshold size; and in response to a determination that the combination does not meet the minimum threshold size, perform operations comprising: identify a lowest-order node device or a highest-order node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices that is among the reduced number of node devices; and transmit, to the identified lowest-order node device or highest-order node device, and via the network, the combination of the map data and the metadata.
 20. The computer-program product of claim 19, wherein the processor component is caused, in response to a determination that the combination does meet the minimum threshold size, to perform operations comprising: form one or more segments for transmission to the one or more storage devices from the combination of the map data and the metadata that each fit within the minimum threshold size and a maximum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to one or more storage devices; and transmit, to the one or more storage devices via the network, the one or more segments at least partially in parallel with multiple other segments formed from the multiple blocks of data by the reduced number of node devices.
 21. A computer-implemented method comprising: transmitting, by a processor component from a control device, and to multiple node devices via a network, a set of node device identifiers to assign each node device of the multiple node devices a different node device identifier of the set of node device identifiers, wherein: the set of node device identifiers defines an ascending or descending series of numerical values that define an ordering among the multiple node devices; and the ordering among the node devices defines a corresponding ordering among subsets of multiple blocks of data of a data set that are distributed among the multiple node devices; receiving, by the processor component from the multiple node devices via the network, an indication of a total size of the subset of the multiple blocks of data distributed to each node device of the multiple node devices; deriving, by the processor component, a set of block exchanges based on the total sizes of the subsets received from the multiple node devices and a minimum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to one or more storage devices, wherein: at least one node device of the multiple node devices serves as a source device to transmit one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data to another node device of the multiple node devices that serves as a target node device; following a performance of the set of block exchanges, the data set remains distributed to a reduced number of the multiple node devices; either each node device of the reduced number of node devices, or each node device but one of the reduced number of node devices, stores an amount of the data of the data set that is greater than the minimum threshold size; and the set of block exchanges follows a block exchange rule that each transfer of one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data in the set of block exchanges is to be from a lower-order source node device and to a higher-order target node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices, or that each transfer of one of the subsets of the multiple blocks of data is to be from a higher-order source node device and to a lower-order target node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices; generating, by the processor component, a block exchange vector that identifies each source node device and each target node device in the set of block exchanges based on the set of node device identifiers; and transmitting, by the processor component, the block exchange vector to the multiple node devices as a block exchange instruction to cause a performance of the set of block exchanges among the multiple node devices.
 22. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein: the data of the data set comprises partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data; each partition of the set of partitions is provided with a unique label of a set of labels; the set of node device identifiers defines a 0-based ascending set of positive integers incremented by a value of 1; and the method comprises, prior to using the set of node device identifiers to derive the set of block exchanges, using the set of node device identifiers to distribute the data set among the multiple node devices based on matches between the set of node device identifiers and a set of modulo values derived from the set of labels through dividing a hash value from a hash taken of each label by a quantity of the multiple node devices.
 23. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, wherein, in response to receiving the block exchange instruction, a node device of the multiple node devices performs operations comprising: analyze the block exchange vector in view of the node device identifier assigned to the node device to determine whether the node device is to serve as a source node device or a target node device; in response to a determination that the node device is to serve as a source node device, employ the block exchange rule in parsing the block exchange vector to identify the corresponding target node device; or in response to a determination that the node device is to serve as a target node device, employ the block exchange rule in parsing the block exchange vector to identify the corresponding source node device.
 24. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein, in response to receiving the block exchange instruction, and in response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a target node to receive a subset of the multiple blocks of data from another node device that is to serve as a source node in the set of block exchanges, a node device of the multiple node devices performs operations comprising: transmit a request, via the network and to the source node device, to transmit the subset to the node device; and receive, from the source node device via the network, and along with the subset, an indication of a size of each block of data of the subset or of each sub-block of data within each block of data of the subset.
 25. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein, in response to receiving the block exchange instruction, and in response to the block exchange instruction comprising an indication that the node device is to serve as a source node to transmit a subset of the multiple blocks of data to another device that is to serve as a target node device in the set of block exchanges, a node device of the multiple node devices performs operations comprising: receive, from the other device via the network, a request to transmit the subset to the other device; and transmit, to the other device via the network, the subset and an indication of size of each block of data of the subset or each sub-block of data within each block of data of the subset.
 26. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, comprising: as part of a registration of the multiple blocks of data by the reduced number of node devices following the performance of the set of block exchanges, receiving by the processor component from each node device of the reduced number of node devices, and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, an indication of a size of the block of data or indications of a size of each sub-block of the block of data; and generating, by the processor component, based at least on the indications of size received during registration, map data indicative of an ordering among the multiple blocks of data by which the multiple blocks of data are to be stored within the one or more storage devices, and which stems from the ordering among the subsets of the multiple blocks of data.
 27. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein: the data of the data set comprises partitioned data wherein: the data of the data set is divided into a set of partitions that are each required to be provided to a single node device; each block of data is divided into one or more data sub-blocks that are each individually associated with a partition of the set of partitions; and all data sub-blocks associated with a single partition of the set of partitions must be included within a single block of data; and the method comprises: as part of the registration of the multiple blocks of data, receiving, by the processor component, for each sub-block of each block of data, a hashed value indicative of a partition with which the sub-block is associated; and generating, by the processor component, within the map data and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, a separate map entry that comprises the size and hashed value of each sub-block within the block of data.
 28. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein: the data of the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form, wherein each block of data is to be separately encrypted by one of the node devices of the multiple node devices; and the method comprises: as part of the registration of multiple blocks of data, receiving, by the processor component, for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, data block encryption data by which the block of data is encrypted; and generating, by the processor component, within the map data and for each block of data of the multiple blocks of data, a separate map entry that comprises the data block encryption data for the block of data.
 29. The computer-implemented method of claim 26, comprising: determining, by the processor component, a total size of a combination of at least the map data and of a metadata indicative of at least one of whether the data of the data set comprises partitioned data and whether the data set is to be stored within the one or more storage devices in encrypted form; determining, by the processor component, whether the total size of the combination meets the minimum threshold size; and in response to a determination that the combination does not meet the minimum threshold size, performing operations comprising: identifying, by the processor component, a lowest-order node device or a highest-order node device in the ordering among the multiple node devices that is among the reduced number of node devices; and transmitting, by the processor component, to the identified lowest-order node device or highest-order node device, and via the network, the combination of the map data and the metadata.
 30. The computer-implemented method of claim 29, comprising, in response to a determination that the combination does meet the minimum threshold size, performing operations comprising: forming, by the processor component, one or more segments for transmission to the one or more storage devices from the combination of the map data and the metadata that each fit within the minimum threshold size and a maximum threshold size imposed on units of data of the data set to be transmitted to one or more storage devices; and transmitting, by the processor component, to the one or more storage devices via the network, the one or more segments at least partially in parallel with multiple other segments formed from the multiple blocks of data by the reduced number of node devices. 